He must have been hit badly with Colton’s bullshit to have had a reaction like that. Either way, I was grateful.
It took me those two whole hours to work out that maybe he was hurting me just to feel something normal again. The past few days might have been a complete clusterfuck for me, but it’s also been that way for him and while his father was lying dead in his home office, he was upstairs in his bedroom, just moments from finally giving in to his desires. The guilt must be eating him alive and his way to deal with that, is to push me away but in doing that, he’s not just punishing himself, he’s punishing me.
We settle into the back pew and I gaze around the room, watching the people filtering past us. I catch Mom's eye a few rows ahead of us sitting with Maryne, and a smile passes between us.
Just as expected, everybody who is somebody comes striding through the door, not that I know any of them. Milo has a running commentary explaining the who’s who of Bellevue Springs. Women in black dresses, over the top hats, and big glasses march their way right to the front while men in ridiculously expensive suits accompany them and look as though they’d rather be anywhere else.
People watch me as they walk by and I don’t doubt that had Milo’s arm not been around my shoulder, a few of them would be in my face, demanding to know what kind of right I had to be there, and sitting beside a Rinaldi at that.
“Heads up,” Milo mutters in my ear. “The bitch twins are coming.”
I look toward the door to watch as Cora and Casey come walking into the church, not daring to speak to a single person. Their black glasses sit perfectly over their eyes and if I’d have to take a guess, I’d say it’s more of a fashion statement than to cover their tears.
They snub everyone who tries to say hello and I watch as they walk down the aisle, right to the front pew. “God, I hate them,” I murmur, doing my best to keep my voice low as I was perhaps a little too vocal about my distaste for the twins on the car ride here. Though luckily for me, it was only me and Milo.
“You and me both, girl,” Milo says. “I haven’t seen them for a few years but they were bitches then, and clearly bitches now.”
The girls have hardly sat down before Colton appears at the entrance of the church. The room falls silent and it’s as though he’s walking toward his throne, but I guess he kind of is. This is the official goodbye of Charles Carrington and the new reign of the Carrington heir.
Just as I knew they would be, all eyes are on him.
Colton stands tall, wearing the exact suit I had picked out for him last night, right down to the dress shirt and cufflinks. I can’t help but feel that this is some sort of message to me, maybe an apology of some sort but then there’s also a good chance that he has no recollection of the bullshit from last night. He could have rolled out of bed at the last minute as assumed one of the maids had laid it out for him. I shouldn’t think about it as it’s only going to mess with my head.
As he walks through the church, he stops and shakes hands with older men who look as though they wipe their asses with hundred dollar bills. He says a polite hello and thanks them for coming before moving on to the next person who’s waiting to feel him out and see if he’ll crack under the pressure.
I can’t help but feel that maybe something I said to him last night resonated within him as this man I’m seeing before me is not the mess I found last night. This isn’t the teenage boy who just had the world dropped on his shoulders, this is a man. A real fucking man. The kind of man who dominates during the day and has you screaming for more at night.
This is the kind of man who has me wanting a future that isn’t mine to want.
Colton rids himself of the men who are busy feeling him out and subtly shakes off the young, gold-digging women who offer him their condolences by draping themselves over him and giving him a