Chapter 2
Series 1 Chapter 2
Logan pulled me away from Sebastian while still holding the ring he planned to put on another woman.
“What the hell was that?”
“You announced you were marrying someone else. Which part confused you?”
His fingers tightened around my wrist. Behind him, Madeline stood on the stage, watching us with the rest of the ballroom.
“Let her go,” Sebastian said.
“Stay out of this.”
Sebastian looked at me. “Do you want me to stay?”
“Wait outside.”
He stepped back. I pulled my wrist free and walked into the private lounge. Logan followed and closed the door.
“What’s been going on between you two?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why did you kiss him?”
He opened his hand as he spoke. My ring lay in his palm.
I held out my hand.
“Give it back.”
“Ava, I don’t love her.”
He kept the ring.
“If I married Sebastian for a year, lived with him and came back afterward, would you wait?”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“Sebastian doesn’t need you. Madeline needs me.”
I lowered my hand. He hadn’t asked what I needed once tonight.
A knock sounded, and Madeline entered with her mother.
“This was a mistake,” she said. “I’ll find another way.”
Logan moved toward her immediately.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I never wanted something that belonged to Ava.”
Her eyes settled on the ring.
Logan took her left hand.
“People need to believe the marriage is real.”
He slid my ring onto her finger. It caught above her knuckle; she pressed it down herself.
I had just asked him to return it. They had both heard me.
“Help her find somewhere to live,” I said. “Go to her appointments. But if you marry her, there is no future wedding with me.”
Logan looked up, still holding her hand.
“You’re asking me to abandon a pregnant woman.”
“I’m asking you not to become her husband.”
“I already made her a promise.”
Madeline turned toward the door.
“I shouldn’t stay. Everyone out there hates me.”
Her mother put an arm around her. She had someone beside her and a brother waiting outside. Logan followed anyway.
“If you go after her now,” I said, “don’t come back expecting me to be your fiancée.”
He stopped at the doorway.
“I’m making sure she gets home. We’ll finish this when I come back.”
Madeline glanced over her shoulder.
He went.
I followed as far as the ballroom doors. Logan guided her past the guests who had come to celebrate our engagement, my mother’s ring flashing on her hand.
Her mother stopped to collect her coat. Through the glass entrance, I watched Logan help Madeline into his car.
He closed her door carefully, one hand shielding her head, then walked around to the driver’s side without looking back.
I waited until the car pulled away before I let myself breathe.
Sebastian came to stand beside me.
“Where do you want to go?”
I looked down at my empty hand.
Logan had heard exactly what leaving would cost him.
He had gone anyway.