Page 205 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10
There was no response.
"Penny?"
Silence.But she had to be there. Ian would have called me if she’d left.
"Penny, it's me. Can I please come in?"Please, just let me in.I pressed my hand against the door, as if that would make me feel closer to her.Please.
The door slowly opened. She was standing there with tears streaming down her face, somehow still looking beautiful.
"Oh, Penny." I grabbed her face in my hands and wiped her tear-stained cheeks with my thumbs. All I wanted to do was fix this. I needed her reassuring smile. I needed to know that we were okay.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I needed to see you."
She sniffed. "Don't you have a class?"
She wasn’t shoving me out the door. This was good. "I cancelled my classes for the rest of the day."
"But, Professor Hunter..."
"The most important thing right now is that we talk." I closed the door behind me. "I think it's safe to say that something is bothering you."
"How did you know which room was mine?"
"Your name is on the door."
"So you walked around the whole building looking at all the doors for my name? Are you trying to get caught?"
"Everyone's in class. And you're avoiding talking to me. If you don't tell me what's wrong, it's impossible for me to fix."
"I don't want you to fix anything." She turned away from me.
"Penny." I walked over to her and turned her toward me. "Just tell me what's wrong. I mean, I gathered from your speech that I'm a lying cheat who's ugly on the inside. I'd like to know why you think that. Because I thought that we were in a good place. Unless you were talking about someone else." If Tyler hurt her, I was going to fucking kill him.
"On Saturday you asked me if I had looked you up online and you were really mad. So I was thinking maybe there was more to find out about you."
"So, you googled me?" I tried to keep my expression neutral. How much about me really was online?Probably a lot.But not the worst of it.
"I just wanted to make sure you were telling the truth."
"I would never lie to you, Penny." I grabbed both sides of her face again. Yes, I hadn’t told her about Isabella right away. But I’d never lied. I just withheld information. There was a difference. And I was in this with her. I was done holding back. I’d tell her anything she wanted to hear.
She shook away from my grip. "I found an interview with Isabella that makes it seem like you were lying. And it was only from a few weeks ago."
Was that all? A silly article with my crazy ex? "You can't believe everything you read in tabloids."
"This one seemed pretty convincing."
Jesus, what had Isabella said? "So what did it say exactly?"
"That you two have never been happier. And that the rumors of your split were completely fabricated."
I sighed. How was this supposed to work if Penny believed a tabloid over me? If we were going to be together, our life would end up being in the limelight no matter how hard I tried to protect her from it. "I told you that it hasn't been a smooth process. She won't sign the papers. She's being incorrigible."
"She said in the interview that you were waiting for her to decorate your apartment."
I stared down at Penny’s tear-stained face. I knew how bad that looked. My place was so empty. Like I was waiting for my wife to decorate it. "She's lying."
