Page 115 of Desserts for Stressed People

“Don’t you remember me?” Olivia croons. “We chatted on RadaR when you were cheating on my friend.”

It’s difficult to keep everyone up to date, with so many lies.

Dragging a hand over my face, I sigh. “You have to go,” I tell Olivia. “Both of you.” I can deal with my ex, but if Shane sees Olivia, this whole thing will go downhill really fast.

She frantically presses the button to the elevator, but just at that moment, the door behind me opens, and a familiar, loving voice calls out my name. “Heaven?”

My shoulders tense, my heart stills.

“Is everything okay?”

I lock eyes with Olivia and shake with each shuttering beat of my heart. Although she turns to the elevator, hiding her face, I know I’m done. If he didn’t see her already, he’ll know something is wrong the moment our gazes lock.

“What’s going on?” Shane insists as I turn to him. His focus is on Alex, specifically on the roses he’s holding.

“I am here to speak to Heaven.” Alex slides between us, giving Shane his back and squeezing my shoulder. “Can we go somewhere private?”

Shane’s jaw clenches, but at least he’s not looking at Olivia. “Do I need to call security?” he asks with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

I almost say yes. That way, he’ll have to leave. In the end, I shake my head and take a deep breath. Alex is a douche, and he probably deserves to have his ass dragged out of the building, but I won’t stoop so low. “No, that’s okay.” I glance back at Alex. “This is ridiculous.”

“Heaven, I don’t know what this whole business about...RadaR is. I’ve never made a profile anywhere. Yes, I made a mistake with Pauline, but that’s it. It’s never happened since and it won’t happen again.”

Shane’s brows furrow over his eyes—he doesn’t know about Emma’s betrayal yet either, though that’s the least of my problems.

When Alex grabs my hand, I try to free myself from his grasp, but to my horror, he kneels in front of me and opens up a ring box. Inside, sits a kitsch golden band with a huge, vomit-yellow stone surrounded by smaller diamonds. “Heaven, I know I messed up, and I’ve hurt you.”

I gape. “What the—”

“But now that I’ve lost you, I saw how much of me needed changing.”

“Alex, stop,” I interject.

“I’m doing it for you. I’m here to show you I’m yours forever. Please, marry me, Heaven Wilson.”

I stare at him, wondering if he lost his mind. Actually, I’m pretty sure he has.

A stern look turns Shane’s gorgeous face into a mask of anger. “You gotta be fucking kidding me,” he says with a long sigh.

The huge, ugly ring sitting in the black box Alex is offering me is the only thing I can stare at, and I’m sure it didn’t just attract my attention, because Shane looks past me, and his brows tighten.

“Nevaeh?”

As his question echoes in my mind, it all collapses. The rug is pulled from underneath my feet. The sandcastle crumbles into a million tiny grains.

“What are you...” he asks, and he must see it in Olivia’s expression that she has no idea who he is, because his whole face scrunches. “Nevaeh...” His jaw slowly drops, and he turns to me. “Heaven.”

He knows. He knows I’m Nevaeh. He knows I catfished him, deceived him, tricked him. Heknowshe was talking to me all along.

His face breaks, the shock in his arched brow replaced by an angry sneer on his lips. His eyes narrow into slits, and instant hatred almost vibrates off him in a green, toxic cloud.

Swallowing, I move past Alex, who is speaking. I don’t hear him over my worked-up heartbeat. I hold on to Shane’s jacket, balling it into my fists as panic fills my chest cavity. “Listen to me. It’s not what you think, okay? Let me explain.”

He squeezes my wrist away as his hands shake, and short, quick breaths ripple out of his lips. “It was you. The whole time, it was you.”

The first tears spill out of my eyes. “Yes, but it’s more complicated than—”

“You said you trusted me. I gave you the key. We watched movies...” It’s as if flashes are passing in front of him like a slideshow, and each of our memories is being tainted by the awareness that I lied to him.

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