Page 90 of Wedding Season
“After what she’s done, you’re going to take her side?” Amber sounded shocked and disgusted.
Alex was fairly shocked as well. He had no idea why he still had the urge to protect Mariella. She’d told him she was an emotional train wreck. He’d been warned, and yet had no real understanding of how deep her penchant for self-destruction ran.
“Have her people call me,” he told Lucy, “if they want details, but don’t let her breathe a word of this.”
Amber appeared ready to lay into Mariella again, but Ryan stepped between them. “Ms. Turner, I must insist that you go now. The sooner you rinse off, the better you’ll feel.”
Amber threw up her hands then turned on her heel and stalked off. She was about to exit the tent when she turned back to Alex. “I hope you’re happy. I also hope that Kate Hudson’s clothing line outsells yours tenfold. Maybe I’ll call her about a collab. So there.”
And with that bizarre parting shot, she was gone.
Alex heard a thunderous round of applause followed by a few enthusiastic cheers. He glanced out the front of the tent and noticed the glimmer of sun-dappled light breaking through the clouds.
The rain had held off although his life was as black as the night sky.
Meredith and Ryan glanced between Mariella and Alex. For once, even sassy Meredith seemed at a loss for words. “Sounds like the show was a success even without your big star,” she said after a moment. The words echoed in the awkward quiet of the moment.
“I never wanted her to be a part of it,” Alex said through gritted teeth. He turned to Mariella. “You were the one who thought this would be a good idea.”
“We’re going to head out now.” Meredith tugged Ryan toward the nearest tent flap.
“I’ll check on Amber later tonight,” Ryan called.
Alex nodded. “Thank you.”
“There’s no way to keep this quiet.” Mariella sounded as hopeless as he felt. “Amber won’t be able to help herself.”
“She will,” Alex said, feeling certain. He hadn’t shared with anyone the specifics he’d uncovered about his former fiancée. It embarrassed him that he’d cared enough to try to vindicate himself after their breakup.
The anger, humiliation and betrayal he’d experienced then had seemed all-consuming but those feelings were nothing in comparison to the bottomless chasm of heartbreak he faced now.
He’d let Mariella into his heart and he couldn’t conceive of a way to cut her out. Except she’d given him no choice.
“Why, Mariella?” He’d asked her to have faith in him—in them—and she’d wholly employed her practice of ruining things when they got too good.
Maybe he should take it as a compliment. She must be petrified of what she felt for him if she’d blown up their future with the force of a nuclear explosion.
“I can’t tell you why,” she said quietly.
Of course not. She didn’t even have a reason for her behavior. It was inherent to her character.
“It doesn’t matter,” he told her with a sigh.
Her gaze took on a starkness he hadn’t imagined ever seeing there.
She shook her head. In an instant, the look in her eyes changed. Their blue depths went from being filled with sorrow and regret to reflecting the crystalline turquoise of a glacier—frozen solid without an ounce of heat.
“I tried to warn you.” She threw the words at him like a grenade. “I told you I was a train wreck, and you said it didn’t matter.”
“I thought we were strong enough to get through it. I thought our faith in each other would be enough.”
“It was,” she whispered, so softly he barely heard the words.
They couldn’t be true because otherwise she never would have taken the risk that she had with Amber.
“Pranking her was so ridiculously stupid it didn’t even begin to touch funny.”
“Do you think it was meant to be funny?”
