THE VALENTINE PROPOSAL

Chapter 9 Claire

Everett turned away. He walked to the window and stared outside.

"You met with a man who's been trying to destroy my company for ten years," he said. His voice was cold. "A man who sees you as just a tool to hurt me. And you're mad at me for not telling you every detail of my past?"

"I'm mad because you're hiding things."

"We barely know each other, Liora." He turned around. "We've been engaged for three weeks. Most of that was pretending for cameras and family dinners. You don't get to demand my whole life story."

The words hurt more than they should have. "You're right. We barely know each other. Maybe that's the problem."

"This is exactly what Ramsey wants." Everett's hands made fists. "He wants to make us fight and make you doubt me. Don't you see? He just made you think I'm using you."

"Are you?"

The question came out before I could stop it. Everett stared at me like I hit him.

"Are you using me?" I asked again. My voice shook. "Because everyone keeps saying I'm in over my head and that you'll hurt me. And there's your family who wants to destroy me. And you won't even tell me if it's true."

"Get out," Everett said quietly.

"What?"

"Get out of my office. I have work to do."

I wanted to argue and push to make him talk to me. But the look on his face made me stop.

I left.

I went to my office and tried to work but I couldn't focus.

An hour later someone knocked on my door. I looked up thinking it was Margaret.

It was Diella.

She had two coffee cups. She smiled like we were friends.

"Peace offering," she said. "Can I come in?"

I should have said no. But I was tired of fighting. "Sure."

She sat across from my desk and gave me one of the cups. "I heard about Ramsey's accusations. That must be hard."

"It's fine."

"Is it?" Diella tilted her head. "Everyone asking if you deserve to be here? If you slept your way to the top? That sounds terrible."

"Why are you here, Diella?" I slammed my book shut.

"Because I think we started off wrong." She drank some coffee. "I was jealous. You have to understand. I've loved Everett since we were teenagers. Seeing him with someone else hurt."

"Then why the peace offering now?"

"Because I realized something." Diella put down her cup. "You're not my enemy. His family is. They destroy anyone who gets close to him. I saw it happen before."

My stomach dropped. "Claire."

"He told you about her?"

"Ramsey mentioned her. Everett won't talk about it."

Diella leaned forward. "Claire was his first serious girlfriend. They met in college. She was sweet, smart and kind of like you actually." She paused. "His parents hated her. She didn't come from the right family and didn't have the right connections. So they paid her to leave."

"How much?"

"One hundred thousand dollars." Diella's voice was soft. "They gave her a check and told her to disappear. And she did."

"Did Everett know?"

"Not at first. He thought she just left him and that she didn't love him enough to fight." Diella looked sad. "By the time he found out the truth, she was gone and married to someone else, living a different life."

I sighed,massaging my temples. This was all too much information. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because they'll do the same thing to you." Diella looked at me. "Nuala and Zyler want Everett to marry someone appropriate, someone from their world. And if you don't leave on your own, they'll make you leave."

She stood up. "I'm not saying this to hurt you. I'm saying it because I don't want to watch them destroy another person Everett cares about."

She left before I could say anything.

I sat there staring at my coffee. My phone buzzed with a news alert.

Montague's Fiancée: A Pattern of Manipulation?

I clicked it. My heart stopped.

They found everything; My student loans. My background. My relationship with Flynn.

But worse than that, they had quotes from Flynn.

"Liora became obsessed with status and money after we started dating. She was always pushing me to make more, be more. When I couldn't give her the life she wanted, she looked for someone who could."

It was a lie. All of it. But it was there for everyone to read.

Another article showed up. Then another. It never stopped. Someone was giving the press information. My hands shook as I read them. By the time I finished, tears ran down my face.

This was what Ramsey meant. This was what Diella warned me about.

They were destroying me.

I grabbed my bag and went to find Everett. He was still in his office. He looked up when I walked in.

"Did you date someone named Claire?" I asked. My voice was steady even though I was falling apart.

Everett's face didn't change. "Yes."

"Did your parents pay her to leave you?"

His silence told me everything.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked. "Why didn't you warn me that your family destroys people who get close to you?"

"Because it doesn't matter."

"It matters to me." I held up my phone. "They're doing the same thing to me right now. Someone is giving the press lies about me. Someone is digging up my past and making it look ugly. And you knew this would happen because you saw it before."

Everett stood up. He walked around his desk but stopped a few feet from me. "What do you want me to say?"

"I want the truth." Tears fell down my face. "I want you to tell me what happened with Claire. I want you to tell me if I should be scared. I want you to stop shutting me out."

He was quiet for a long time. Then he said, "Claire was my first serious girlfriend. We met sophomore year of college. She was studying literature. She wanted to be a teacher." His voice was flat. "My parents hated her the second they met her. Wrong family."

"What did they do?"

"They offered her money to leave. One hundred thousand dollars. She took it." He looked at me. "She didn't even think about it. She just took the check and left."

"Did you love her?"

"I thought I did." Everett put his hands in his pockets. "But I was twenty. I didn't know what love was."

"What did you learn?"

"That everyone has a price." His gray eyes were cold. "That's when I learned love has a price for everyone. Some people's price is higher than others. But everyone breaks in the end."

I stepped closer to him, close enough to touch him. "I'm not Claire."

"I know."

But the way he said it made my chest hurt. He didn't believe it. He wanted to but he couldn't.

"Your family is going to try to destroy me," I said quietly. "Just like they destroyed her."

"I won't let them."

"Can you stop them?"

He didn't answer.

I reached for his hand. He didn't pull away but he didn't hold on tight either. His fingers were loose against mine, like he was already getting ready to let go.

"I'm scared," I whispered.

"So am I."

It was the most honest thing he said to me all day. We stood there in his office with our hands barely touching. I wanted him to pull me close.

But he just stood there.