And God could damn her to hell before she allowed their love to be used as a bargaining chip against him.
Her shoulders fell. The Brenners had won. They had accomplished exactly what they set out to do. They wanted her gone from the beginning, and so created a vacuum inside which neither of them could survive.
“What?” he shouted. “What are you thinking, Tessa?”
She dropped her gaze to the ground. “This is over,” she said quietly.
“No, no, no.” He shook his head. “You don’t mean that. You can’t mean that, Tessa.”
A tide of rending grief built within her and she clenched her fists, struggling to rein in a sob. “They’ll ruin us, Dibs. Your parents will take what we have and distort it until it’s something we both hate. No matter what we do, they’ll make it so there’s nothing left for us.”
“I
told
you that, Tessa.” Michael stepped onto the balcony.
She snapped her chin up at the same moment Dibs spun around. “Shut up, Michael!” she hissed.
Dibs jerked back to her. Awareness flashed in his eyes. “Michael?”
She opened her mouth, snapped it shut.
“
Michael!
He told you! He told you what?”
Understanding cleared the creases between his brows, but she remained silent. Let him think what he wanted. His assumptions would only help convince him they needed to part. She would break his heart. She would break both their hearts. But the Brenners had already ensured that would happen.
And if she acted now, before he buckled under the pressure of fighting a war over her, then maybe she could save some part of him, for the future, just as he had done for her.
She would sacrifice their love and let him go.
“He’s been here this whole time and you knew!” He searched her eyes. “You talked to him and never told me.”
She locked onto Michael, arched a brow, and refocused on Dibs. Tears threatened over the hurt, the devastation raking his face, but she quickly blinked them away. If one ounce of weakness showed, he would never believe. Her entire sacrifice would be in vain.
“I lied?” A growl issued from his throat. “I lied to
you
?”
She curled her lips into a calculating smile, lowered her lashes to hide the truth.
“It was that week”—he shook his finger at her—“when we got back from Vail. You saw him that week, and then you lied so you could go right on seeing him.
That’s
why you would never say yes. You were never ready because all this time you’ve been trying to decide which one of us you wanted.”
The world reeled. The horrific nightmare sucked at her consciousness.
“I knew it!” He slammed his fist against the balustrade. “You’ve been seeing him this entire time, haven’t you? You went back to him and then fed me one lie right after the next!” A vicious laugh roared from his throat as he tossed his head back. “You’ve got some nerve, haven’t you? You can stand here and accuse my family of playing games, when you’ve been playing your own games all along!”
Her arms numbed. Panic surged and swelled. God, please let her be strong enough to follow through. She strode forward on wobbly knees, left Dibs and joined Michael at the top of the steps. His hand met the small of her back. She lifted her chin, her heart splintering into a million jagged shards.
Dibs paced the balcony, rubbing his forehead before stuttering to a halt. His hands trembled, and in his eyes his entire heart had been consumed by flames.
“I’ve been such a fool.” He lowered his head, shook it at the ground. “I would have given up everything. I would have completely denied my entire life for you. And now I find you never really loved me. It was all a lie…everything.”
Shrill screams resonated inside her head. The air grew dense. The balcony listed to the side. If only he would leave, before it was too late, before she lost her nerve and told him the truth.
“I’ll make your decision real easy, Tessa.” He met her gaze. “You were right. This is over.”
In two long strides, he grabbed Michael by the shirt and hefted him in the air. “If I ever hear one word—”
Michael’s head cranked side to side when Dibs shook him roughly back and forth.
“If I ever find out you hurt her, I will hunt you down. Do you understand me?”
Terror glazed over Michael’s eyes, shifting under the venom leaking through Dibs’s heated glare.
“
Do you understand me!
” Dibs shoved Michael’s chest. He tumbled like a rag doll, down the stairs and onto on the lawn.
Tears swarmed her eyes, blurring Dibs’s form as he stalked past.
The impulse to reach out, cry she loved him and only him, overwhelmed her. She clenched her hands tighter, fingernails biting into the skin of her palms. Her love for him must be stronger than her need.
He grabbed the handle of the ballroom door, eyes focused on the ground. “I loved you more than I ever thought possible.” He swung the door wide, and disappeared.
Her knees buckled. She dropped to the steps, tried for a breath, but her lungs refused to expand.
The sun dimmed.
Her vision narrowed.
Tiny sparks danced before her eyes.
As if a dream, Michael crawled up the steps to her side. “Are you all right?” His voice echoed from a long distance away.
The ground teetered. Her head smacked the cement. The tiny sparks exploded. Large fireworks crackled through her sight.
“Oh my God, Tes—”
A black curtain descended.
Chapter Twenty
To the casual observer, she was certain the photo of Dibs looked the same—dressed in a tuxedo, standing beside Margaret, with her beautiful red tresses piled high and her neck like a swan. But to Tessa the difference was obvious. A light had been extinguished. No sparkle shone in his eyes. No more love or shimmering warmth. His clean-shaven face was too somber for those foolish things. His jaw was too tight, the set of his shoulders too rigid.
She closed her eyes and shoved the newspaper away, trying to clear the images from her mind. But the headline remained ingrained behind her closed eyelids.
Powerhouses Reunite:
Chicago’s long-time
philanthropist, David Brenner, announces reconciliation with Margaret Strattford, daughter of internet mogul Charles Strattford.
It was a business deal, nothing more, the long article detailing how the Strattford Software Company would receive an influx of cash, while the Brenner empire merged smoothly into the computer industry. Stocks were skyrocketing. Everyone was celebrating.
There was no mention of how two lives had been destroyed.
This was a business deal, after all.
And now time was her enemy, each hour leading closer to the event. Now she spent her days reliving that scene on the balcony, searching for a way to take it all back. But nothing would ever undo her quintessential performance.
You lied about everything…
Bitter tears flooded her eyes, and she buried her face in her hands. Dibs was right. She had lied about so many things. But what she’d done to protect him, she’d only used to hurt him in the end.
Someone cleared their throat.
Tessa opened her hands to Celeste standing in her office doorway. “Sorry to disturb you, but Michael Phoenix is calling again.”
She’d been avoiding him for weeks, but their conversation was long overdue. Besides, her actions weren’t his fault. If anything, Michael played his part as convincingly as she had. He’d done exactly what she wanted. That, in itself, merited at least a moment of her time.
“I can take another message…”
“No, I’ll take it.” She reached for the receiver, glancing at her desk clock. “It’s after six, Celeste. You should go home.”
“That’s all right. I’ll wait until you’re ready.” She swung the door closed behind her.
Tessa hit the blinking button, a fresh swell of tears flooding her lashes, and cleared her throat. “Hello, Michael.”
Silence echoed through the line. “I didn’t think you would take my call. I was prepared to leave another message.”
“I’ve been stalling. I needed some time to get my head together.” Like that would ever happen.
“It’s crazy, because I’ve been anticipating this moment, and I had all these things worked out I wanted to say. But now that I have you on the line, all I can come up with is, I’m sorry.”
She pressed her trembling fingertips to her lips, her tears spilling down her cheeks. She’d waited forever to hear those words from him. But who was she to judge? What would she give for the chance to atone for all the mistakes she’d made? “I think we’re all sorry at this point.”
A heavy sigh whispered past her ear. “Remember when you first started TNT? All those long hours you spent away from home? Sometimes it seemed like days went by without us seeing each other. Do you remember?”
The hectic pace, the intense pressure to turn a buck. More often than not she had worked late into the night. “I remember.”
“Did you miss me?”
A sob wedged in her throat. She hadn’t missed him nearly as much as she missed Dibs. “I was too exhausted to miss anyone, Michael.”
“Yeah, I didn’t miss you, either.”
She placed a hand on her chest, hitching a breath.
“I should have done things differently, Tessa. I know that now. And I don’t expect you to understand. But ultimately, I think we would have ended at the same place.”
Michael had thought things through, and in this, he foretold their future. “I would have to agree with you.”
“Wow. That’s a first.”
She smiled despite her tears. “Yeah? Well, don’t let it go to your head.”
He chuckled. “Look, for whatever its worth, I realize I put you through hell. I’m not asking for a second chance. That ship has sailed. But I want you to know, if you need anything this weekend, I’ll be around.”
“I appreciate that, Michael.”
“Take care of yourself.” The line went silent and she slowly replaced the receiver.
A stack of thick binders occupied the chair opposite her desk. TNT was ready. Every last detail had been coordinated for the event…except for her. But what steps could she have taken? No clear path lay before her. Not a single action she performed could have sufficiently prepared her to face the Brenners.
Throughout the past three weeks a consistent fog had shadowed her every waking moment. Nothing made sense. She often forgot what she was doing, and couldn’t shake the strange sensation she didn’t know who she was anymore.
The Tessa before Dibs, that cold, hard businesswoman who cared for no one but herself had long since disappeared. And the woman she’d been with Dibs ceased to exist, as well. She’d become trapped in the middle somehow, between the two different women she used to be. If only the frenetic pace had stopped for a moment, maybe she could’ve figured out what came next. But in the countdown before the BFG event, she and Tiffany had time for nothing but work and sleep.
Tiffany…
She would have never gotten through those weeks without her dear friend.
Tessa stood, approached the window and pushed one of the slats aside. Orange rays from the setting sun colored the dusky street. After she’d fainted on the balcony, Tiffany’s face was the first image to clear in her vision. She held a cool cloth to Tessa’s forehead, high bright-red spots dotting her cheeks, brow furrowed in a combination of alarm and concern.
They were in the Park’s main lobby, Tessa’s arms and legs sprawled along a couch. Ms. Kramer paced nearby, her cell phone to her ear. The security guard’s arms were outstretched, shepherding the growing crowd back a distance. Both Dibs and Michael were noticeably absent.
“I need to leave,” she had whispered.
“I know you do. Come on, I’ll take you home.”
Tiffany did the talking on the cab ride into to the city, describing how Michael had burst into their office in a panic. She had shouted for him to get help and sprinted toward the balcony. He and the security guard had carried Tessa to the lobby.
The rest of the details fell on deaf ears. Tessa had stared through the window, the only voice in her head belonging to Dibs, the only words, those he uttered before leaving. The single picture before her eyes, the pain on his face.
Back at her condo, she had spilled the whole gruesome story between sobs. Tiffany sat close, holding her shoulders. Afterward, she remained silent, and Tessa knew why.
She had been wrong. True love did exist. And in the aftermath of such a devastating loss, Tiffany offered the only thing a true friend could—her unwavering support.
Neither of them ever mentioned that day again. In a way, Tessa was thankful for their unspoken agreement. If she could just hang on until the event was over, if she could put some distance between herself and the Brenner family, perhaps then, one day, those words could be spoken.
Everyone else seemed happy enough to forget, allowing her a false veil of dignity whenever she was at the Park, trying like hell to hold her chin up, a total fraud on the inside. The nearest she came to the experience was when Ms. Kramer entered her office and placed a folder on the desk.
“I thought you might like to see this,” she offered in her silky voice. She immediately exited, closing the door behind her.
Inside the folder lay the evaluation papers BFG used during the selection process. Through a heavy sheen of tears, Tessa read how TNT had scored high above the other event planners.
Dibs had told her the truth. She and Tiffany received the job all on their own, despite Mr. Brenner’s unkind words.
Every day she left the Park at noon and returned to her office, nearly frantic, trying to stay preoccupied so her thoughts wouldn’t wander. But it didn’t matter.
Each evening at six, wayward tears trickled down her cheeks. Dibs never walked through the door. She received no smiles or tender kisses.
She couldn’t bring herself to pack away their memories. To do as much would be like denying their relationship had ever existed or faulting Dibs for how their love had ended. But she, alone, bore the blame.