Page 91 of Resisting You
We all blinked.
A weird mix of relief and disappointment passed through the room like a breeze. Hazel audibly exhaled. Reid stepped back to allow my father to enter.
Apa stood there, wearing the same tailored navy suit he had on at the rehearsal dinner, looking stiff and formal and entirely out of place in Reid and Hazel’s too crowded airbnb. His gaze shifted from Hazel to Reid, then landed on me, softening.
“Well,” he said, voice dry, “judging by the faces in here, I can’t tell if I just saved the day or ruined the mood.”
Despite myself, I let out a small, startled laugh. My father didn’t crack jokes often, but it always warmed my heart when he did.
Hazel stood up, clearing her throat. “We’ll, uh… we’ll give you two some privacy.”
Reid grabbed his keys from the table. “Yeah. We were just going to get… something.”
“Yep,” Hazel confirmed with a nod. “Some… ice cream.”
I arched my brow at my bestie. “Ice cream? In Maple Grove at eleven p.m.?”
She shot me a look. “Yes. From that late night food truck.”
She gave me a final scathing look before slipping out quickly, shutting the door behind them.
And just like that, I was alone with my father. Something that used to feel suffocating.
Now? It just felt quiet.
He stepped farther into the room, pausing by the edge of the sofa like he wasn’t sure he was invited to sit.
“May I?” he asked.
I nodded, and he lowered himself onto the couch beside me, studying me with that careful gaze he used in press interviews. Except this time, it didn’t feel rehearsed. It felt… sad. Real.
“Your mother showed me what’s being said online,” he said finally. “The blind item.”
“Of course she did,” I muttered.
“Is it true?”
“It’s all over the internet, so it must be true, right?” My joke fell flat, tinged with the bitterness I felt.
“I wanted to hear it from you, Rosa.”
I sighed and snapped the laptop shut, the unbought ticket still waiting behind the screen. “What you read is pretty much all true. We got drunk in Atlantic City and woke up married. We hadn’t even had a date prior to that night.” I shrugged and let my hands fall, defeated to my sides.
“Okay…” my father said slowly.
“And then… we didn’t annul it. We both saw that we could benefit from staying married. Me, building my practice and getting his wealthy celebrity friends to sign on as clients. And for him, it meant producers and casting directors would see him in more serious roles.”
Apa lifted his brows, silently urging me to continue. “And?”
“And what?”
He shrugs. “That doesn’t sound like the end of the story.”
“Well, it is. We got caught. And now it’s over.”
“Except… it seems onlyyougot caught.” I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the inevitable lecture. That we, as Alvarez's, needed to watch out for ourselves. That he was right about Noah’s publicist not being trustworthy. That as a politician’s daughter, I needed to always be mindful of media. Assess the risks. I took a breath, bracing myself as he said, “Onlyyourreputation got dragged through the mud online, right? His is still okay.”
“It was that girl, Morgan, who leaked it. His ex-girlfriend.” It was painful to admit that to anyone, let alone my father.The girl you and Mama invited without permission, I wanted to add. “Morgan has her reasons for wanting to keep his reputation intact. For now.” I stared down at my hands, unable to look at my father. Even now, decades later, as a damn adult, I still can’t look my father in the eyes and stand up for what I believe. Stand up for who I believe in.
