Embracing The Past

CHAPTER 4

The Midtown Hilton was swarming.

Camera crews. Reporters. Spectators with phones raised high. It felt more like a red-carpet premiere than a press conference except the only thing about to be unveiled was a betrayal.

Lucas’s jaw flexed as his car pulled up to the curb. Elena sat beside him, her hand resting lightly on her knee, trying not to let the noise get inside her head.

This wasn’t her world.

But she was standing in it anyway. For him.

The driver opened the door, and the moment Lucas stepped out, camera flashes exploded in every direction. Elena followed, blinking against the lights as questions were shouted over one another.

“Mr. Thorne, is it true you led Vivian Shaw on for two years?”

“Did you propose and then dump her when your ex returned?”

“Elena Rivera how long have you been involved with Lucas Thorne?”

“Is this a love triangle or a cover-up?”

Security rushed them through the side entrance. Inside the ballroom, a temporary stage had been set up with a dozen chairs and microphones. At the center, Vivian sat poised and glowing, dressed in soft ivory and pearls—like a grieving bride left at the altar.

She smiled the moment she saw them enter.

“I was wondering if you’d come,” she said sweetly, rising to her feet. “Though I thought you’d at least have the decency to wait until after I’d spoken.”

Lucas stepped forward. “I’m not here to wait. I’m here to correct the lies you’re about to tell.”

A murmur rolled through the press.

Vivian tilted her head. “You always did love grand entrances.”

“I loved a lot of things,” he said. “You weren’t one of them.”

The sting in her eyes was brief but real.

Elena took a seat near the front of the stage, flanked by security. She watched as Lucas stepped up to the podium, interrupting what was meant to be Vivian’s solo spotlight.

He scanned the room. “Thank you for coming. I’ll make this brief. There is no engagement between myself and Vivian Shaw. There never was. She has never owned or been promised any portion of Thorne Enterprises. Her claim is not only false it’s malicious.”

Vivian rose behind him. “Malicious? Lucas, darling, I have emails. Texts. Proof of your promises.”

“You have my mistakes,” he said, turning to face her. “Not promises. Not contracts. You twisted a few shared dinners into something permanent because you couldn’t stand not being the center of my life.”

Gasps echoed. Someone zoomed in with a camera.

Vivian stepped beside him at the podium. “Tell them about the retreat. About the ring you said you were considering.”

“I told you I was ending things with you,” he snapped. “You booked the honeymoon suite before I agreed to anything. You stalked my past. My life. You knew Elena was coming back before I did.”

Vivian’s smile cracked.

“This woman,” he gestured to Elena, “has no reason to lie. She walked away from everything once. She’s not here for money, or press, or revenge. She’s here because we have something real. Something you could never fake.”

For a long second, no one moved.

Then Vivian laughed. It was soft, bitter, theatrical. “Fine,” she said. “If you won’t admit what we had, the courts will force you to.”

She turned to the press.

“I have emails. Witnesses. Receipts. I gave up years of my life for this man, and now he wants to throw me aside for some pretty face from his past. Well, I won’t go quietly.”

Her voice wobbled at the last word. And then, in a flash of desperation, she looked down at Elena.

“You think he’s telling you the truth?” she called. “Ask him what really happened seven years ago. Ask him why you stopped getting his letters, too.”

Elena stood slowly. “I already did.”

“And you believed him?” Vivian’s eyes narrowed. “After everything?”

Lucas moved between them. “You don’t get to poison her against me. Not again.”

Vivian didn’t answer. She simply smiled tight, cruel and walked off the stage.

Later, in the quiet of Lucas’s office, Elena stood by the window as he poured them each a glass of scotch.

“She’s not going to stop, is she?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “But neither will I.”

She took the glass, fingers brushing his. “That was brave.”

“It was necessary.”

She looked at him really looked at him. “I meant what I said earlier. I’m not going anywhere.”

Lucas met her gaze, something deep flickering in his eyes.

And then just as he leaned in to kiss her his phone buzzed again.

He checked the screen and froze.

“What is it now?” Elena asked, heart sinking.

He swallowed hard. “It’s not Vivian.”

She moved beside him. “Then who?”

He handed her the phone.

The message was from an unknown number, but the text was short. One sentence.

“You thought she was the only one watching?”

Elena’s stomach dropped.

Lucas stared out the window, his voice grim.

“This isn’t just about Vivian anymore.”