Page 130 of See You Maybe
Declan’s nostrils flared, and Olivia suddenly understood. She drew in a deep breath. “Will you tell me the circumstances someday?”
“I would rather not, but if you really want to know, I’ll tell you. I don’t want there to be secrets between us.”
Olivia considered for a minute. It wasn’t like her to be so accepting of something without an explanation, but something had shifted in her. Stabbing a man can do that. She thought of what Declan said. Some people deserve to die. “I think we’ve had enough confessions over the last twenty-four hours. It can wait.”
Declan blinked at her easy acquiescence, but before he recovered, she said. “So, you didn’t know until XEROS.”
“My team worked up dossiers on all the key people at Armstrong.”
Olivia shook her head with a frown. “Then why didn’t you?—”
“You were married.” Declan’s face was tortured. “I thought you were happy, and I didn’t want to take that from you.” Declan rubbed at his sternum.
“You stayed away because you thought I was in love with Kyle?”
“If I’d known… If I knew what he was doing to you,” Declan’s voice turned savage. “I would have come for you. You wouldn’t have gone through all of this. If I’d only read that damned dossier on him… I’m so sorry, I wasn’t here for you, Petal.”
Tears slipped silently from the corners of her eyes, but her lips lifted in a sad smile. “Don’t apologize. You couldn’t have known. No one knew. I doubt it was in the dossier. Most of the time, it wasn’t physical. It was what he said, how he made me feel…” Olivia patted her cheeks dry with the back of her hands. “I never cry like this.”
“I know you must be angry with me?—”
A quiet, humorless laugh left her, and Olivia cupped his jaw with her hand. “Declan, you aren’t god. As much as you think you are omnipotent, you aren’t. You can’t know everything, protect everyone all the time…”
Olivia stroked her fingers along the powerful line of his jaw and then up to trace his eyebrows, smoothing the lines bunched between them. “You beautiful megalomaniac. I’m not crying because I’m upset with you. I’m mad at myself. The magazine with your real identity came out before Kyle proposed. I was angry and hurt. I thought you’d lied in order to use me. There were so many pictures of you online with the most gorgeous women. Jessica convinced me I was essentially another in a long line of women. She knew how I felt about you and how I had always hoped that we would get our chance.
“Jessica wanted me to marry Kyle, and she knew I was already seeing red flags in him. I think she saw your identity as her chance to push me into the marriage.”
“I hate your friend,” Declan growled.
“We aren’t friends anymore. Jessica is pissed about the takeover. Declan, I knew where you were before you’d ever even heard of XEROS. I should have reached out, but I allowed my pride to rule my heart.” Her lips twisted. “And god knows I paid for it. I doubted you. I doubted myself and my memories.”
“I gave you good reason.”
The corner of her lip lifted. “True.”
Declan took her hand and held it on the table between their coffee mugs, fingers interlaced. “I never pretended with you. I may not have told you my real name, or who my family was and all that entailed, but I never lied to you. I was more myself that one week with you than I have been at any other time in my life. You accepted me for who I was. No expectations or agenda. You wanted me. Other than my siblings, no one has ever cared about only me.”
Olivia’s eyes softened, and she scooted closer to him. “It was the same for me.”
Their words hung in the air between them. If it were anyone else, Olivia would be pointing out that she shouldn’t let Declan back in so easily. That she had just gone through a horrific ordeal and her emotions couldn’t be trusted.
But the rightness of Declan’s hand in hers reassured her that being with him was exactly how her life was meant to be.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Atlanta—Present Day
Later that afternoon, warm and completely sated with a naked Olivia tucked against him, Declan dozed. He never took a day off, much less to spend the day in bed with a woman. Olivia’s head rested on his shoulder, and her nails drew lazy patterns on his chest that only made him sleepier.
“Why didn’t you tell me to call the police?”
“Hmm?”
“The police. You were so upset when you saw… even before I told you I stabbed him.” Olivia hesitated. “Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate you not pushing me. I guess I’m wondering why you never mentioned it. Is it because you know it would be bad for my career?”
The fuck?
Wide awake now, Declan captured her hand under his. “Why would you say that? What the fuck does any of this have to do with your career?” His blood boiled that Kyle had so eroded her confidence.