Chapter 6 Secrets and Shadows

Elena stood in front of her closet Friday night, trying to decide what to wear to dinner with a man who'd just loaned her fifty thousand dollars to save her brother's life.

Was there appropriate attire for that situation? Emily Post probably didn't have a chapter on "What to Wear When Your New Boyfriend Becomes Your Savior."

Her phone buzzed with a text from Alex: *Picking you up at 7. Somewhere special tonight.*

*Define special.*

*You'll see. Dress nice.*

*That's not helpful.*

*Trust me.*

She did trust him, she realized. Completely. Maybe too completely for someone she'd known less than a week.

She settled on the blue dress again-it was still the nicest thing she owned. Ruby had offered to take her shopping, but Elena couldn't bring herself to spend money on clothes when every dollar needed to go toward eventually paying Alex back.

Ollie was having a good day, relatively speaking. The appointment results, while not perfect, had been better than worst-case scenario. And knowing treatment was secured had lifted a weight off both of them.

"You look nice," Ollie said from his doorway as she applied the minimal makeup she owned.

"Thanks. How are you feeling?"

"Good. Ruby's coming over to watch movies with me, so don't feel bad about going out."

"Ruby's coming here?"

"She texted me. Said something about making sure I'm actually okay and not just pretending for your sake." Ollie grinned. "I like her. She's bossy but in a good way."

"That's Ruby in a nutshell."

There was a knock at the door. Ollie moved to answer it before Elena could.

"Hey, kiddo," Ruby's voice carried through the apartment. "Ready for a Marvel marathon?"

"Always."

Elena emerged from the bathroom to find Ruby laden with snacks, drinks, and DVDs. Her friend took one look at her and whistled.

"Damn, girl. You clean up nice."

"It's just dinner."

"Nothing is 'just dinner' with that man." Ruby set down her bags and pulled Elena aside. "Have you thought about what this means? Him paying for Ollie's treatment?"

"It's a loan."

"Ellie, nobody loans fifty thousand dollars to someone they barely know without strings attached."

"There are no strings. He cares about Ollie. About me."

"Exactly. He cares. Which means this is serious. Are you ready for serious?"

Elena thought about it, about how quickly everything had moved, how deeply she'd fallen in such a short time.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But I don't think I have a choice anymore. I'm already in too deep."

"Just be careful. And if he turns out to be a secret psychopath, I know people who know people."

"That's oddly comforting."

At exactly seven, another knock sounded. Elena opened it to find Alex in dark slacks and a charcoal button-down, holding a single white rose.

"For you," he said, his smile soft.

"You brought me a flower."

"I wanted to bring a dozen, but I thought that might be too much."

"One is perfect." She took the rose, its petals soft against her fingers. "Let me put this in water."

While she found her mason jar vase, Alex greeted Ruby and Ollie, easily falling into conversation with them. By the time Elena returned, all three were laughing about something.

It felt right, natural, like he'd always been part of their small family.

"Ready?" Alex asked, offering his arm.

"Ready."

In the car, Elena turned to him. "So where are we going?"

"It's a surprise."

"I'm not good with surprises."

"I know. Marcus told me you need to control everything." At her shocked expression, he laughed. "I'm kidding. But you do like to know what's coming. Unfortunately for you, tonight you'll have to trust me."

"That seems to be a theme with you."

"Is it working?"

She thought about the loan, about how he'd shown up for Ollie's appointment, about the way he looked at her like she was precious.

"Yeah," she said softly. "It's working."

They drove out of the city, heading north along the coastline. The sun was setting, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink. Alex kept one hand on the wheel, the other holding hers.

"Tell me about your week," he said. "Beyond the appointment."

So she did. She told him about work, about the regular customers and their quirks. About Ollie's good days and bad days. About the small moments of joy that made survival worthwhile.

He listened intently, asking questions, making her laugh with his observations. It was easy, talking to him. Too easy.

After about forty minutes, they pulled up to a restaurant perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The building was all glass and modern elegance, the kind of place Elena would never have thought to go.

"Alex, this is too much-"

"It's not too much. It's exactly right." He came around to open her door. "I wanted tonight to be special. You've been through a hard week. You deserve something beautiful."

The interior was even more stunning than the exterior. Floor-to-ceiling windows offered views of the ocean, now dark and mysterious under the rising moon. Their table was by the window, private and intimate.

"This is incredible," Elena said, looking out at the water.

"Wait until you see the sunset from here. It's-" He stopped, checking his watch. "-Actually, we just missed it. But the moon on the water is just as beautiful."

They ordered wine-something expensive that Alex assured her she'd love-and settled into easy conversation. Elena felt herself relaxing, the stress of the week fading away.

"I need to tell you something," Alex said after their appetizers arrived. His tone had changed, become more serious.

Elena's stomach tightened. "Okay..."

"I haven't been entirely honest with you about my situation."

Here it was. The complication he'd mentioned. Elena set down her fork, preparing herself. "I'm listening."

Alex took a deep breath, his gray eyes conflicted. "My family has certain... expectations. About who I marry, how I run the company, the life I lead. And those expectations don't leave much room for personal choice."

"What does that mean?"

"It means there's an arrangement. Between my family and another family. A merger of sorts, through marriage."

The words hit Elena like cold water. "You're engaged."

"Technically, yes. But it's not-"

"You're engaged," she repeated, her voice flat. "And you didn't think to mention this when we started dating?"

"It's complicated-"

"It's really not." Elena stood, her hands shaking. "You're engaged to someone else. Which means everything we've done, everything we've said, has been a lie."

"No." Alex stood too, reaching for her hand. She pulled away. "Elena, listen to me. The engagement is a business arrangement. Victoria and I don't love each other. We're not even friends. It's just-"

"Just what? Just your entire future planned out while you what, slum it with the bartender for a few weeks?"

"That's not fair."

"Fair?" Elena laughed, bitter and broken. "You want to talk about fair? You let me fall for you. You met my brother. You loaned me fifty thousand dollars. And all this time you were engaged to someone else."

"The money has nothing to do with-"

"Doesn't it? Or was that just you buying my silence? Making sure I'd be too indebted to walk away when I found out the truth?"

"You know that's not true." Alex's voice was strained, desperate. "The money is for Ollie. Because he needs treatment and I have the means to help. It has nothing to do with Victoria or the engagement or-"

"When's the wedding?"

"What?"

"The wedding. When is it?"

Alex was quiet for a long moment. "Six months."

"Six months." Elena felt sick. "And when were you planning to tell me? A week before? The day of?"

"I'm telling you now-"

"Because you had to. Not because you wanted to." She grabbed her purse, needing to get out, to breathe, to process. "I need to go."

"Elena, please-"

"Don't." She held up a hand, tears burning behind her eyes. "Don't make this worse by trying to justify it. You lied to me. By omission maybe, but you still lied."

"I never lied. I told you I had complications, obligations-"

"Complications? You're engaged, Alex. That's not a complication. That's a dealbreaker."

She turned toward the exit, but he caught her arm gently.

"I'm going to end it," he said quietly. "The engagement, the arrangement, all of it. I'm going to tell my mother and Victoria that I can't go through with it."

Elena wanted to believe him. God, she wanted to believe him so badly it hurt.

"Can you?" she asked. "Can you really walk away from your family's expectations, from this merger, from everything you've been building toward? For someone you've known less than a week?"

"Yes."

"I don't believe you."

The words hung in the air between them, sharp and final.

"Elena-"

"Take me home. Please."

The drive back was silent and suffocating. Alex tried several times to start a conversation, to explain, but Elena couldn't hear it. Her mind was spinning, trying to reconcile the man she'd been falling for with the reality of who he was.

Engaged. He was engaged.

When they reached her apartment, she got out before he could open her door.

"Elena, at least let me explain-"

"There's nothing to explain. You're engaged. I'm not the kind of person who gets involved with engaged men." She looked at him, at the pain and desperation in his eyes, and felt her heart break a little more. "Thank you for the loan. I'll start paying you back as soon as I can. But we're done, Alex. We have to be."

"Don't do this. Please."

"You did this. The moment you didn't tell me the truth." She turned toward her building. "Goodbye, Alex."

"I love you."

The words stopped her cold. She stood frozen, her back to him, tears streaming down her face.

"No, you don't," she said quietly. "You can't. It's only been a week."

"My father proposed to my mother after three weeks. Sometimes you just know."

Elena turned back to face him, and the raw pain in his expression nearly broke her resolve.

"Maybe you do know," she said. "But love isn't enough when you're choosing someone else. Love isn't enough when there's a wedding in six months. Love isn't enough when I'm just a complication in a life that's already been decided."

"You're not a complication. You're-"

"I have to go." She couldn't hear anymore. Couldn't stand here and listen to him say things that might be true but didn't change anything. "Please don't follow me. Please don't call. Just... let me go."

She walked into her building without looking back, even though every instinct screamed at her to turn around, to run back to him, to believe that somehow they could make this work.

But Elena Morrison had learned the hard way that wanting something didn't make it real.

And fairy tales didn't happen to girls from the wrong side of town.

---

Alex sat in his car outside Elena's building long after she'd gone inside. His phone rang-his mother, probably calling to discuss the engagement party. He ignored it.

Marcus called next. Alex answered.

"She knows," Alex said without preamble.

"About Victoria?"

"Yes."

"How'd she take it?"

"About as well as you'd expect. She ended things."

Marcus was quiet for a moment. "Are you okay?"

"No." Alex leaned his head back against the seat. "I love her, Marcus. I actually love her. And I fucked it up before it even had a chance to start."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. End the engagement. Tell my mother she'll have to find another way to secure the merger. Figure out how to live without the woman I love."

"That's not much of a plan."

"It's all I have."

After he hung up, Alex finally drove home. His penthouse felt empty, sterile. The couch where they'd talked for hours mocked him with memories. The windows that had shown her the city lights now just showed emptiness.

He'd known telling her would be hard. He just hadn't realized it would feel like losing a piece of himself.

His phone buzzed with a text from his mother: *We need to talk about the engagement party. Call me tomorrow.*

Tomorrow. Always tomorrow. His entire life had been built on tomorrows-tomorrow the merger will be finalized, tomorrow you'll take over the company, tomorrow you'll marry Victoria, tomorrow you'll be happy.

But he'd learned this week that happiness wasn't something that waited for tomorrow. It was something you grabbed today, with both hands, even when it was complicated and messy and scared the hell out of you.

Elena had been his today. And he'd lost her by holding onto tomorrow.

Alex pulled out his laptop and opened a new document. He started writing-an email to his mother, formally requesting to end the engagement. He wrote and deleted and wrote again, trying to find words that would make her understand.

Finally, exhausted and emotionally wrung out, he sent it.

*Mother,*

*I cannot marry Victoria Ashford. I will not marry Victoria Ashford. I apologize for the complications this will cause, but my decision is final. We'll discuss the business implications tomorrow, but the engagement is over.*

*Alexander*

He hit send before he could second-guess himself.

His phone rang almost immediately. His mother, furious. He let it go to voicemail.

It rang again. And again.

Finally, at 2 AM, he answered.

"Alexander Hartley, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Choosing my own life for once."

"This is about that woman, isn't it? The bartender Marcus mentioned?"

"Her name is Elena. And yes, this is about her. But it's also about me. About not spending the rest of my life in a loveless marriage just to satisfy family expectations."

"Love is a luxury, Alexander. Duty is what matters."

"No, Mother. Duty is what killed David. Duty is what's made you bitter and cold. I won't let it kill me too."

He hung up before she could respond.

Outside his windows, the city glittered with possibility. Somewhere out there, Elena was probably crying, hating him, regretting ever meeting him.

But she was also free of him. Free to find someone who could give her everything without complications or obligations.

Even if the thought of her with someone else made him want to put his fist through a wall.

Alex poured himself a drink-the scotch Elena had noticed that first night-and finally let himself drink it.

It tasted like regret and possibility and the ashes of something that could have been beautiful.

Tomorrow, he'd fight for her. Tomorrow, he'd prove that he meant what he said.

But tonight, he let himself mourn what he'd lost.