Chapter 37

Ally

“Aren’t you angry about this?” Kelly’s gaze tried to cut right through the doubt that puddled in the center of my forehead. But that was the thing about doubt. It wormed its way through every cell. It overtook everything like an insidious disease.

So I was angry. Fuming. On fire with emotions and none of them positive, but that didn’t give me the right to…

The right to do what?

I cut the car’s engine and leaned on the steering wheel, glaring at the Moreno mansion.

I did have the right to be mad about this. Whatever this was.

“Ally, you should give him a piece of your mind.” Kelly sat back against the car door, unhooking her seat belt. “Make him look you in the face and spit out his latest lie, if only to see what he comes up with.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, then released the flesh slowly, considering the front of the mansion. Gabe and his father had already stepped inside, Faith in tow. The gates began closing.

“You’re right,” I replied. I fumbled the car door open and darted out, cheered on by Kelly’s ecstatic whoop of encouragement.

The gates swung towards me, and my heart skipped. What in the hell was I doing? I didn’t even have a real relationship with this guy. Did I have any right to go scampering up some stranger’s property to confront Gabe in front of his prominent family? But right now, I didn’t care.

I slipped between the iron bars, sucked in my stomach, and stumbled up the drive, led by emotion. When I heard them clank closed behind me, I glanced back. Kelly’s eyes were saucers, but she gave me a big thumbs up anyway.

“You go, girl!” she yelled out the window.

They had to have heard that.

I hurried up the drive, feet crunching on the stones. I let the anger at his betrayal bubble inside — which was already a fondue of disappointment. Why couldn’t he have been honest from the start?

We’d come far together. We would’ve gotten further and I’d invested too much of myself in this to let it slide.

“Gabe,” I yelled at the top of my voice. “Gabe Moreno! Get your butt out here, right this second.”

“Ass,” Kelly called from the car.

“Right,” I murmured, then turned up the volume again, “get your ass out here!”

The mansion’s front lights were on, but the massive oak door was shut tight. I examined it from afar, sucked in a breath and charged up the sweeping front stairs. I raised my fist to knock.

The door swung inward and Gabe stood there, blinking at me. His brow wrinkled. “Allegra.” The word seemed to strangle in his throat. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you exactly the same thing.”

“I… uh.” He couldn’t get a sentence out. Really? He couldn’t even defend this?

I restrained myself from turning back and scaling the gates to escape my rioting feelings. Escape. Flee.

Faith swaggered out the front door, led by her monstrous belly. “I thought she might pop up on your front doorstep, Gabe. I did warn you about mixing with the trash. You always wind up dirty.”

“Quiet, Faith.” Gabe gritted his teeth. “Allegra—”

“That’s a strange name.” Donovan Moreno strolled out of the house, surrounded by a cloud of cologne and an arrogant demeanor that said ‘this is my porch and anyone on it better explain themselves and be quick about it.’

I folded my arms. In defiance. And rage.

“Just who are you, young lady?” Donovan asked without presenting a hand for a proper greeting. I noticed the slight. It would be impossible not to. His piercing blue gaze swept over me from head to toe and then dismissed me with a flick of his hand and a soft smirk of recognition. Of knowing.

“I’m Allegra Wilson,” I said, dropping my arms to get rid of the defensive posture. I had to seem in control, even if I wasn’t. My torso immediately felt the loss of my self-hug.

“She’s a friend of mine,” Gabe said. Faith’s smile stretched her treacherous face into a balloon. Seriously, she looked like she’d pop at a moment’s notice and spill glee all over the toes of my pumps.

Why was I so nervous? This was his fault! He owed me an explanation.

I squared my shoulders. “What’s going on here, Gabe? You never told me your father was—” There wasn’t a polite way to put it.

“Loaded,” Faith said helpfully. Her balloon face hadn’t popped yet, but my fingers were crossed.

“The size of my father’s portfolio is none of anyone’s damn business. It has nothing to do with me.” Gabe’s reply hit me in the chest like a wrecking ball. Whooshing the air and the bravery and the anger from my chest.

“You were afraid I’d want you for your money,” I whispered, “you thought I’d ask for your help with the bakery.”

“This is all fascinating,” Donovan Moreno said, checking his nails, making it clear that nothing interested him less. “But we have business to attend to. I’ll open the gate and you can see yourself out. I’m sure you can see there’s nothing here for someone like you.”

“No doubt,” Faith snorted.

“You owe me an explanation, Gabe,” I said, but the hunky fireman was unreachable. He’d drawn a curtain across his gaze. His heart. I couldn’t penetrate it. “What the hell is going on here?”

Donovan clapped once. “Apparently, my son has lost his balls, mind or both, so I’ll do the honor of filling you in.”

“Stop, Dad, I’ll talk to her later,” Gabe said, finally breaking whatever vow of silence he took the minute I entered the grounds.

“Nonsense,” Donovan replied, his tone clipped and businesslike. “Gabe is going to marry Faith here, who’s pregnant with his child. You are an unwanted addition and will kindly remove yourself from these premises.”

“Or, he’ll throw you out,” Faith put in, gesturing over her shoulder.

I stared at them, standing on the porch in a row, Gabe furthest from me. He refused to meet my gaze, even though he had to know how this felt. Like someone had reached into my body and ripped my heart out through my chest.

Getting married? Engaged?

Faith raised her left hand and twiddled the ring finger to highlight the titanic-sized iceberg populating it.

My anger sucked down through my feet and drained into the top stair. I filled up with the horrid realization that I was totally out of my element here.

“I have to go,” I whispered, fingers creeping to my lips. I held them there and stared at Gabe, trembling. “I have to go,” I repeated.

“That’s right.” Faith took a wobbling step forward and Donovan’s hand shot out to steady her. “You’ve upset me enough. You’ll endanger our child at this rate.”

I shook my head, unable to say another word.

“It’s not the way it seems, Ally,” Gabe said finally. “I’ll explain later. But right now, I have to deal with this.” He made a sweeping gesture with both arms. As if I should know what this was. As if I were some addled toddler incapable of understanding basic English. “Okay?”

No, it was not okay. How could he think it was anything but fucked up?

I raised my palms and shoved them towards him, releasing an invisible Ally force field. “Don’t call me again.”

“That’s a wise decision.” Donovan adjusted his cuff links, huge silver squares with diamonds. He pointed to the gate. “It will open when you get to it.”

The dismissal was enough to set my feet moving. I turned and walked down the stairs, my spine threaded with iron which would melt any minute. Just one word from Gabe and I’d either collapse or start sprinting for the exit like a madwoman.

It sounded melodramatic in my head, but God, this man had dragged me over the coals. I should’ve known. I should’ve stuck with my initial instincts and protected my heart. Why did I have to insist upon answers? Closure that probably would never come. I should have just gone home and curled up into the fetal position to lick my wounds.

Bitterness spread across my tongue, flavoring it with defeat. Yes, Gabe Moreno was a damn liar. Donovan, however, wasn’t. The gate did open the minute I was within range and clanged closed behind me.

I opened my car door and slid into the driver’s seat.

Kelly was squished against her door in the exact position I’d left her. I probably hadn’t been gone that long.

“Do I even want to know?” she asked, biting off the nail of her middle finger. She’d correctly read my tragic expression. And defeat.

I shook my head mutely. Her expectant look, searching. But I couldn’t bring myself to articulate it. If I brought it out into the open, I’d never be able to shove it back inside for only me to know.

“Let’s go back to your place, hon, I’ll make you a cup of hot cocoa.” Kelly squeezed my arm, digging her fingernails in gently to snap me back to reality. A reality I didn’t want to be a part of right now.

I started the car and put it in reverse for the second time that night.