Page 57 of Beauty and the Billionaire

Although he had scolded me for being ashamed, I couldn’t help but feel some guilt for underestimating my father. He knew much more than he let on.

Neon Nights was quiet tonight. Lights coming from the windows were subdued, and I couldn’t even hear the music as I walked down the street, snow crunching under my boots.

I neared the entrance and inhaled the cold December air deep into my lungs. It felt as though I could breathe more freely, although nothing at all had changed—nothing, except for everything.

Guilt of an uncanny and completely new kind tugged my heart down in my chest. It felt like I was turning a new leaf by coming here. It felt like I was pretending none of the last two months had happened.

It had. It very much had. Even grazing those memories consciously brought up a flood of clashing emotions to the forefront of my soul. Strangely enough, gratitude warmed up my body. Had I not met Dominic, I would have been living a completely different life now. But that thought was followed by hopelessness I couldn’t control. I couldn’t keep a check on the welling sense of loss.

We could have been something, I thought as I swallowed, my fists balled tightly, and my footsteps determined. I crossed the street and opened the door of Neon Nights. For once, I would walk in honestly and proudly. I was who I was; I was true to it at last.

Heads turned to the door as I entered, my footsteps nailed to the floor and eyes wide. Bradley was behind the bar, wiping a glass with a microfiber cloth. Roman and Everett sat at the bar with tall glasses of tap beer in front of them. Mama Viv stood stoically, intent on the words that were spoken to her. And between them all, sagging on the barstool, with a whiskey on ice before him, sat Dominic himself.

My heart leaped before I reminded myself that I didn’t know which Dominic this was.Are you the cruel one or the kind one?I wondered still as Dominic lifted his head from where it rested on his hands, turned it, and looked right into my eyes.

His lips parted, but I discovered that the dominant emotion ravaging me was fear. I was terrified of discovering that it was the wrong Dominic sitting there tonight. I was terrified of hearing something that would break my heart more than it already had.

Before I knew it, my back was turned to the bar, and I was standing in the snow and in a pool of orange light from the street lamp.

“Darling,” a soft, pained voice came.

I looked over my shoulders to see Mama Viv standing in her black dress, her arms bare and covered with prickles against the winter air.

“Darling, come inside,” she said, wringing her hands together.

I swallowed a tightening knot in my throat. “I don’t think I should.”

“It’s never a mistake to have a conversation in good faith,” Mama Viv said gently.

I winced. What if it wasn’t in good faith? What if he told me how it was over? What if he told me how he’d destroyed Julian Hale’s life in revenge and crossed the furthest line there was? In some misguided effort to promise that it was all behind us, he would shut the final door. To hear that would be like losing the last glimmer of hope. So long as I didn’t know the outcome, I could fool myself into thinking that things could get better.

“Just a conversation, Zain,” Mama Viv urged me.

“You warned me against him,” I pointed out, my voice quivering.

Mama Viv winced and wrung her hands harder, arms huddled close to her body. “We’re all guilty of some kind of prejudice, darling. I’m only human.”

“Don’t you know what he’s done?” I asked as Mama Viv stepped closer to me. I turned a little away from her, clenching my fists against shaking.

“This isn’t the conversation you should be having with me,” Mama Viv said softly. “He’s here, working up the courage to look for you.”

And to tell me how he won?My heart cracked like a sheet of ice. “It…hurts.”

“More the reason to speak to him,” Mama Viv said.

“Please?” The voice was deep and soft, coming from behind Mama Viv. Dominic stepped outside just as I turned to face Mama Viv again.

Tall, ruthlessly handsome, and with a face so dimmed with sadness that it broke me all over again. His hair stood in messy spikes from running his fingers through it. His beard was overgrown just enough to show he hadn’t taken care of it since that night. His eyes were red and tired.

Mama Viv nodded slightly as if asking me if I were ready to be left alone with Dominic. Oh, but I was. I didn’t fear him. I only feared losing the last thread that tied me to him if this conversation went badly. It was a bond that hadn’t gone away, not completely. It was a bond I didn’t want to lose too soon.

“Okay,” I whispered.

Mama Viv hesitated a moment longer, making sure it really was okay before she turned back to the bar. On her way in, she put a hand on Dominic’s forearm, lending him some courage. She had an infinite amount, we all knew.

As the door of the bar shut, Dominic stepped lightly toward me and straightened a little. “Zain,” he said in that warm voice of his. It made my knees weak.

“Did you do it?” I asked, my voice barely holding steady. Everything—everything—rested on his answer. The silence between us stretched, taut as a wire, and I could feel it cutting into me with every agonizing second.

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