Page 49 of Forever Only Once
“Ah. It’s good to see you out and about after, well…you know.”
Hazel’s expression completely shut down, and I wanted to kick the man’s ass.
“Yes. Have a good night.”
And then she turned from him, giving the other man what I thought I remembered one of my friends, Aaron, calling the cut direct.
Well.
That was interesting.
“Sorry about that,” Hazel said, her cheeks completely pale. The waiter came by and dropped off her wine and my beer. She drank half her glass in one large gulp before we even had a chance to toast or anything.
Fuck.
“You want to talk about it? Or do you want to go? We can hit up a bar and get some wings and beer. Or I can follow you home to make sure you’re safe.”
Fear danced in her gaze, and I cursed myself. “Or I can not follow you home and not sound like a creep.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath.
“There are a couple of things you should probably know about me. First, I’m not that person anymore, so you don’t need to worry about me. Truly. I just need to breathe. It’s just that I didn’t expect to see him here. I hate that man because of what he represents, but I also don’t like making a scene. Now, I feel like I’m making a horrible scene anyway.”
“You’re not. But what’s wrong?”
She let out a breath. “I don’t really know how to say this without sounding snobby.”
“Let me guess. You come from money?” I asked. Her eyebrows rose.
“That’s one way to put it.”
“What’s another way to put it?”
“Honestly, that’s the best way to put it. My parents were wealthy. Big W, all of that. I grew up affluently and ran in the circles my mother told me to. Myra ran in those same circles. That’s actually how we met. Now, we’re both here. And, yes, I still have my family’s money, but I mostly live on what I make at the school. Which isn’t much, but compared to what others make, it’s great. I didn’t live up to my family’s expectations, but I’m used to that. However, that’s pretty much what most little rich girls say.”
“Hazel.”
She waved her hand in front of her face and smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Sorry. That’s what my ex-husband used to say. Thomas.”
Something turned in my gut. It wasn’t jealousy. But I knew I wasn’t going to like where this led.
“I’m going to need more wine for this, but I’m driving.”
“We can leave your car here, and I can have one of my brothers pick it up.”
“No, falling into a bottle won’t help me either.” She let out another breath, composing herself. She looked like a Valkyrie. Strong and fucking sexy. I admired her so much in this moment, but I couldn’t say that. Not when I knew she was barely holding it together. “We married young. I was nineteen. Stupid and I didn’t understand what I was getting into. But it was what my family wanted. Thomas was who my parents thought I needed to marry. He was old money, even older than the Nobles’.”
“The way you say that sounds like you’re from the Regency era.”
“Our money’s actually older than that,” she said. And then she sighed. “But that doesn’t matter. Honestly, I have the privilege of saying that. I donate what I can, and I actually pay my taxes, but yes, I have money. You do, too. But you earned yours.”
“Hey, you work your ass off. You don’t have to.”
“I guess that’s true. It’s just a touchy subject. But back to my story. There I am, poor little rich girl—as I said, Thomas would say that when I wanted to work. When I wanted to fund things myself. Anyway, he was chosen for me, and I happened to fall in love with him. It was one of the worst mistakes of my life.”
“You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”
“I don’t want to go into too much detail, mostly because we’re in public, and I don’t really want to talk about it, but I feel like I need to. Thomas was not a nice man. After my parents died, he didn’t have his leash anymore. He hurt me in more ways than one. He was a horrible person. He stalked me when I left him. He hurt me. Over and over. And when he went to prison, it created a vast media nightmare, at least in our circles. That’s what Mr. Peterman was referring to. He was surprised seeing me out and about because of the incident.”