Page 259 of Daddy, Take Me Away
“Mrs. Frontenac, this is an unusual request.”
“I don’t give a shit. Leave. I want a minute alone with Amadeo.”
I nod to Garret and there’s a shuffle before both lawyers leave.
Gwen’s eyes land on her husband, Émile. “You too.”
Frowning, Émile looks at me. Irritation flashing in his eyes, he rises. I don’t ease my ex-best friend’s anxiety though. But it hits me how much he cares for Gwen and worries about the two of us alone.
How had I never noticed how much he loves her? I suddenly feel like the shit who cheated with his girl. He wanted her all along, and for real. I just went along for the ride. It must have killed him to see me so indifferent about the love of his life.
That’s how I feel about Mark dismissing Zoë so easily.
There’s that truck again, slamming into my chest, the realization hitting as hard as the grill from a Freightliner Cascadia 125.
I’m in love. I fucking love Zoë Wayz. Shoving a hand through my hair, I swallow hard.
Impossible. No fucking way. I was with Gwen for years and never loved her. There’s no way I can fall in love with someone after a few months of emails and phone calls and two weeks together. That shit doesn’t happen. This isn’t some fucking fairytale. This is real life.
“Who is this chick, Deo? I want to know.” Gwen’s voice forces me out of my panic. My gaze darts to hers.
“Chick?”
“Stop fucking with me or I’m not signing these papers and your fucking precious resort will be half mine for the rest of our lives.”
“Zoë?”
“Yes, her. Who is she, for real? I know she’s not your girlfriend. Neither of you can lie for shit. But I also see the way you look at her.”
“And how the hell do I look at her, Gwen?”
“Like she’s your fucking world, Deo.”
I swallow hard. Fuck. It’s as if she’s slapped me. She sees that in me?
“But you’re incapable of love, right? Admit. It. Or I walk out now.”
My mind is whirling, my heart squeezing impossibly hard in my chest. I can’t love Zoë, except, goddammit, I do. And if I admit it, Gwen won’t give me back my resort.
I suddenly feel like Zoë standing on that playground structure as a kid, just needing that few seconds to make the leap but everyone is jeering at her.
Fuck.
My mind flies back in time, to my mother and father, standing in the foyer, my mother’s bags packed, tears streaming down her face, me clutched in her arms.
“All I ever wanted from you was loyalty. And you couldn’t even give me that.”
She cheated on him and when he caught her, he sent her away, using every resource he had to keep her from ever seeing me again so she couldn’t betray me too. And then Gwen did the same thing. I married her and she fucking cheated, too.
Women didn’t love you, they used you and then left when they were done with you.
“It was fake from the start. Zoë pretended to be my girlfriend to get you off my back.”
Gwen assesses me.
“That’s too bad. It looked real to me.”
Her words anger me. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? She said she knew Zoë wasn’t my girlfriend.
