“How did you know I went to Paris?!”
Teddy sighed, a flicker of patience in his eyes. “You had your assistant book the flights and hotels. I’m a major shareholder in the company. Do
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Chapter 2
you really think it’s that hard for ine to find out my CEO’s travel plans?”
09:51
He leaned in closer, his voice softening with a teasing, affectionate tone. “Honestly, I’m a little worried about the intelligence of our future child.”
I met his scorching gaze, and my heart skipped a beat. This strange, electric chemistry… I’d never felt anything like it in seven years with Max.
A cacophony of car horns from the backed–up traffic behind us shattered the moment, conveniently masking my flustered state.
“Are you gonna move or what?!”
“The light’s green!”
“Get a room!”
“Are we part of your foreplay or something?!” a driver shouted, rolling down his window.
My face was burning, my heart pounding. “Can you just move your car? We can talk at home!”
Teddy deliberately misinterpreted my words.
“Good,” he said, his voice a low, suggestive murmur. “Let’s go home and talk.”
He emphasized the word “home,” and my cheeks grew even hotter. I found myself unable to meet his direct gaze.
While I was distracted, he leaned in and pressed a quick, soft kiss to my cheek.
By the time I registered what had happened, he was already back in his car.
His little maneuver left me completely flustered for the entire drive back. I followed his car back to the apartment complex on autopilot.
But there was no point in hiding anymore. We needed to sit down and figure this out.
As soon as we were inside my apartment, I cut straight to the chase.
“This baby was an accident. I’m going to call the hospital tomorrow and make an app-”
An arm snaked around my waist, pulling me back against a hard chest. Teddy held me from behind, his warm breath ghosting across my ear.
My body went rigid, the words dying in my throat.
“You have a cruel streak, you know that?” hè murmured. “You hide from me for a month, and the first thing you want to do when you get back is get rid of our child.”
I broke free from his embrace, planting my hands on his chest to create a safe, arm’s–length distance between us. I needed the space to think
clearly.
“Teddy, you were willing to break ties with your family for Chloe. Honestly, I was moved by your love for her. That’s why I can’t let myself be the one to ruin it.”
“This is my child, and I have the right to decide what happens. Please, just forget that night and go get married.”
A wicked grin spread across Teddy’s face. He took my hand from his chest and moved it down to his stomach.
“My abs are much better now. You can touch here if you want.”
Even through his shirt, I could feel the heat radiating from his skin, the hard ridges of his muscles. My ears burned. I tried to pull my hand away, but he held it firmly in place.
“Who told you Chloe and I were getting married?”
“But you were at the jewelry store, picking out…”
“If I didn’t put on that little show with her, would you ever have come back from Paris?”
I was even more confused. “Why would Chloe agree to help you trick me into coming back?”
Had he found out she cheated on him? Had they broken up?
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“Why wouldn’t she? Chloe and I have only ever been partners in crime. A purely revolutionary friendship”
What???
10
Right there in front of me, Teddy dialed Chloe’s number.
Her voice, breathless and flirty, came through the speaker. I could only imagine what she was doing, and my mind inexplicably flashed back to the steamy details of my night with Teddy.
“So, did you finally catch your girl?” she purred. “You have no idea how much that news story cramped my style with the new hotties I’m trying to hook.”
“Victory is in sight,” Teddy replied lazily. “Say hi.”
Without warning, he held the phone up to my mouth. On autopilot, I managed a weak “Hi.”
“Cara! It’s a pleasure,” Chloe’s voice chirped. “We should get drinks sometime. I’ll introduce you to some seriously wild young studs!”
I mumbled a dazed “Okay,” and Teddy immediately hung up.
“Thinking about wild young studs while your hand is on my abs?” he teased.
I snatched my hand back as if I’d been zapped by electricity, my heart doing a frantic tap dance in my chest. I retreated to the couch, trying to regain my composure.
“What do you mean, ‘catch your girl‘? What is going on?” I tried to keep my voice steady.
As far as I could remember, Teddy and I had barely interacted. We had never dated, never even flirted. Where was this all coming from?
He pulled a chair over and sat across from me, his intense gaze fixed on my face.
“You married me eighteen years ago,” he said. “Then you dumped me and got together with Max. So now, here I am, winning my wife back.”
Eighteen years ago?!
The memory was so distant… Back then, I was a little princess, doted on by my parents. Teddy was a serious, mature boy, nothing like the play- ful rogue he was now. And Max… Max never looked down on me with those superior eyes.
The “marriage” Teddy was talking about was just a game of house I played when I was eight. I’d had a fight with Max and, out of spite, I made Teddy be the groom.
That was also the year my father’s business went bankrupt. We lost everything and had to move out of our upscale neighborhood. I lost conta- ct with both Max and Teddy.
11
When I re–entered their world seven years ago, it was to raise money for my father’s expensive surgery.
I showed up at the Coles‘ front door in a faded, worn–out dress, swallowing my pride.
Max and I had an arranged engagement, a promise made between our grandfathers when they were close friends. I didn’t expect them to honor it; I just hoped they would help us out for the sake of their old friendship. After all, our grandfathers were long gone. The engagement was little more than a verbal agreement, a joke.
To my surprise, not only did the Coles help, but they also acknowledged the engagement.
And just like that, Max and I started dating.
Then, in my junior year of college, everything changed. Max, who always visited me like clockwork on Saturdays, suddenly became unreachab-
- le.
That’s when I learned about Ava. She was an orphan, the daughter of his father’s first love. Against his wife’s wishes, Mr. Cole had insisted on adopting her. Mrs. Cole used to say that Ava was just like her mother–a cunning little fox who knew how to use her apparent weakness to manipulate men.
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The next seven years proved her right.
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Ava was fifteen when she was adopted into the family, right at the age when a girl’s heart starts to flutter, Max, uninterested in romance at the time, treated her like a little sister. But Mrs. Cole saw the look in Ava’s eyes and sent her to study abroad before she even finished high school. Ava used her loneliness as an excuse to constantly video chat with Max, monopolizing his time. When I came into the picture, Ava sensed Max pulling away. When he finally told her we were dating, her campaign of helplessness began in earnest.
She would invent stories about being stalked by strange men or bullied by classmates–anything to get his attention.
Then, in our junior year, after failing to win him back, Ava attempted suicide.
Max flew to her side without even telling me. I can only imagine how moved he must have been, listening to a pale, weak Ava confess her hidden love for him from her hospital bed.
When he came back, I could feel it. His heart was torn between us.
I admit, I didn’t have Ava’s cunning or her manipulative tricks. The scales of Max’s affection eventually tipped in her favor.
Perhaps I was so consumed by the toxic triangle with Max and Ava that I never noticed the intensity of Teddy’s feelings. I’d overlooked the way his eyes had reddened when we met again after all those years. I’d ignored the lonely figure he cut across the campus quad whenever he saw Max and me walking together.
12
I never even realized that as Max hurt me time and time again, Teddy was silently plotting to win me back.
He wanted to marry me, but my engagement to Max was a massive obstacle. So, four years ago, he teamed up with the wild and free–spirited Chloe. He became her financial backer, protecting her from lecherous, pot–bellied investors so she could freely flirt with her lineup of young
actors.
In return, Chloe’s scandalous behavior helped lower the bar for entry into his family.
As Teddy explained it, Chloe marrying into his family would be like setting the house on fire. Me marrying in, by comparison, would just be
like… opening a window in the roof. His mother would be so relieved it wasn’t Chloe that she’d welcome me with open arms.
That was his crazy, four–year plan.
Starting his own company had been an unexpected bonus. Even if I couldn’t marry into his family, his own ventures were more than enough to provide for us for the rest of our lives.
For a moment, I think I understood how Max must feel.
All of this, because of a game of house from eighteen years ago? He’d been in love with me this whole time?
No wonder I’d always secretly admired him. He really was a true romantic.
I didn’t get it, but I was deeply, profoundly shaken.
“We were only eight back then, Teddy. Weren’t you a little… precocious?”
“You were eight,” he corrected me, deadpan. “I was ten.”
I pulled my hand from his grasp. “How did you know Max and I would break up? And how were you so sure that I would get with you after?”
A slow, knowing smile spread across his lips. “I was confident.”
“After all, I put in a lot of hard work to make sure I could give you… pure bliss. Body and soul.”
He stressed those last few words, standing up and shamelessly flexing his abs and chest like a peacock displaying its feathers.
My eyes burned, and my thoughts turned to mush. My mind involuntarily replayed scenes from that wild night.
“Teddy, you should go,” I said, opening the door. “I need some time alone.”
The information overload was too much. I couldn’t process it all at once.
Teddy’s flexing hand froze mid–air. His handsome, deep–set eyes turned heavy, his pouty expression unexpectedly heart–stopping.
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