Page 73 of Ruined
I didn’t want it to be true. I pleaded in my mind: Please.Please. Don’t let it be about me.
“He took your virginity,” Aldrich said, the grin growing on his face. “He owns Aldrich Inspired Investments now.”
My entire body was instantly hot. White fog blurred the edges of my vision.
A bet? He had bet Aldrich that he could take my virginity?
How could he question the reason I was there for him, saying that all I wanted was his money, when his sole interest in me was to gain more capital?
That’s all I was to him. A bet. A piece in his game. I should’ve known it all along.
“I hope you didn’t have feelings for him,” Aldrich said. He laughed and threw his head back. “God forbid, you fell for him. You poor, poor, stupid girl.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Fuck off, Aldrich.”
“Oh, Hales, don’t take that language with me,” he mocked. “I’m not the one who betrayed you.”
“Like you’re any better.”
“Now, I never pretended to be anything that I wasn’t. In a way, I’m more honest than him.You know me. But you didn’t know Lucas, did you?” He lifted his drink. “I’m surprised that he was willing to bet his company on you. But then again, he’s always been confident.”
My heartbeat was rapid, bursting through my chest. Iwasstupid. Stupid for trusting him. For believing that there was anything more than sexual attraction between us. Giving up the one thing I kept as a barrier between me and the rest of the world, going back on the lesson Mama had taught me: Don’t fall for someone, or you’ll make stupid decisions. Don’t end up like Mama.
“I’m sure Dahlia will come around to dole out your penalty soon,” Aldrich said. Mel hit his shoulder and he scowled at her. “I mean, Mel won’t tell. Will you, Mel?” She shook her head. He turned back to me. “And of course, I won’t tell. But with all of the servers I told last night?Someonewill tell Dahlia.”
I raked my hands down the sides of my face, trying to revive myself, anything to make this not real. Because it wasn’t real. I couldn’t accept that I had fallen for a man who had taken a bet on me. Everything he said. Everything we had done. Everything I had felt. All of it was a lie.
“If you had let me take your virginity, I wouldn’t have told anyone. But I have no stake in your status anymore,” he said. He turned to Mel. “Let that be a lesson to you.”
The two of them resumed a conversation, dismissing me like my world wasn’t falling apart right in front of them. Tears welled up in my eyes. Damn it. No. I couldn’t cry. Not now. I had to stay angry. Lucas had hurt me. Even if he felt nothing for me, he deserved to feel my wrath.
I asked Mel to text me when Lucas arrived, and she agreed. I didn’t care about the consequences, the potential added fees; I hid in the Greenhouse until I got her text. He was waiting at a table in front of the stage. The metal hoop hung empty like a noose.
I clenched my fists. My teeth. Every muscle in my body was tense at seeing him. Those green-brown eyes. The dark hair. His perfectly sculpted facial hair. Exuding charm and confidence and everything I thought I wanted. This was the face he gave to everyone. The lying exterior. The same face he gave to me.
I stomped towards him and he opened his mouth to say something, but I slapped him across the face. The sound of the smack echoed through the building, and everyone hushed to look at us. He glared at me.
“A bet, Lucas?” My whole body rattled with rage. “A bet? That’s all I am to you?”
“A bet that I tried to call off,” he said. He stood, matching my stance. I had to look up to him, but he didn’t scare me anymore. Not like I knew he should.
“You didn’t try hard enough.” The tightness in my body stretched into increasing heights of rage. “I trusted you. I should have listened to my instincts. I knew not to trust you.”
“I guess you didn’t try hard enough either.”
That fucking smug bastard. Always had to have the last word. But not this time.
“We had unprotected sex, Lucas,” I whispered. “You could have gotten me pregnant.” He stared at me, his eyes cold and hard. “When I realized I wasn’t pregnant, I was relieved. That should have been the sign. Because I knew I could never trust you to be there for me when it counted. So why should I have trusted you at all?”
“You could have stopped me.”
And I knew that was true. That losing my virginity wasn’t his fault. I had been a part of this. Every step of the way, I made the decision to let my guard down. To let him in. To believe in him. To trust him.
To fall in love with him.
His questions from the night before raced through my mind. “You wanted to know if everything I did was for your money? Well, you know what? Yes, Lucas. I would never have spoken to you if it weren’t for the money.”
He stared at me. The truth was more complicated than that. My job at the Dahlia District was to entertain billionaires for money. But if we had met on the street, if we had both led different lives and crossed paths, I don’t know what would have stopped me from talking to him.
But he was insecure about that. And I wanted him to feel like I felt. Hurt.
I didn’t know how I could have been so stupid.
“You bought my virginity,” I said. “You bought my trust.” I was crying now, the tears rolling down my face in angry streaks. His cold hard eyes enveloped me, and the anger boiled inside of me under his stare. “But you can’t buy me.”
I didn’t care how much Dahlia added for a dropped shift. I went to the Greenhouse and slammed the door behind me. I raced to my bedroom and threw myself on the bed, and I cried, and cried, and cried.
