Still, she persisted. “Do those things in his past have to do with me?”
Rhiannon knew she was on the right track when Annabelle looked away. “Of course not.”
Bingo. Rhiannon swallowed the lump in her throat. It tasted like bitterness and defeat. “Thank you for your counter. But I have to regretfully decline.”
She made it to the door before Annabelle found her voice. “You’re refusing the company? Why?”
Rhiannon shook her head, unable to fully explain. How could she tell Annabelle that the sale would feel forever tainted and handed to her out of pity and default? How could she verbalize this complex ball of emotions? “I don’t believe I need a reason. Thank you for your time and your consideration.” She left the room before Annabelle could speak further.
She was thankfully already packed. Instead of summoning the housekeeper or butler, she grabbed her bag herself from her room. She hadn’t cried in forever, but as she jogged back downstairs, her sinuses grew dangerously clogged. All she could pray was that she didn’t run into Annabelle or Samson.
The strap of her duffel caught on the door handle of the library as she passed it, and she tugged it free. She froze, gaze on the floor, when Samson called her name from down the hall.
The anger she’d expected, but not the hurt. She deliberately ignored him and continued walking to the front door.
“Rhi? What happened? Rhi!”
God, her name on his lips. It hurt to hear it. It made her angry to hurt when she heard it. Peter had tainted her full name, and now Samson had tainted her nickname? Would she have any name left?
“Rhi!” He grabbed her arm and she shoved him away so violently she dropped her bag.
“Don’t touch me,” she said coldly and got madder at the hurt in his face. He had no right to be hurt. She was the one who had dared to hope and had that hope smashed to smithereens.
He held up his hands. “Okay, okay,” he soothed. “I won’t touch you. What’s wrong? Did Annabelle refuse your offer?”
Ugh, like he could take care of things, if Annabelle had refused her. He couldn’t take care of anything for her. “No, she refused Peter. She countered me.”
He appeared mystified. “But that’s great news?”
“She refused Peter,” she repeated, enunciating each world carefully, in case the fool didn’t get it. “Because you told her what I told you about me and Peter, didn’t you? After I said not to say anything?”
“No. I didn’t. She—”
“She said she learned something about Peter she didn’t like, and I could tell the thing she learned was about me. How did she know anything about me and Peter? You were the only other one here who knew.” Her voice was getting dangerously loud. Too loud, too much, too emotional.
He held out his hand in that beseeching universal gesture for calm down, little lady. She almost swatted him away. “I didn’t—”
“What? You didn’t intend to tell her anything?”
“Let me explain. Belle was leaning toward Peter. He had the stronger bid. I—”
“I wanted this company on my own merits. Buying Matchmaker would have proved . . .” Something. She wasn’t sure what. “I didn’t want to cheat.”
“You didn’t cheat. I didn’t tell her, but for God’s sakes, Rhi, even if I had, what he did to you, it’s the truth. Telling someone the truth is not cheating. Him getting away with hurting you? Him getting rewarded in spite of it? That’s cheating.”
The blood roaring in her ears made it impossible to process what he was saying. “I can’t believe I trusted you.”
His face turned gray. He took a step closer. “You were right to trust me.”
“No. I wasn’t. You forgot about me once before. You disregarded my feelings here entirely. Even after—” She broke off, because what did they have together? The start of something maybe, but not even that now. “It was my decision to tell someone about this. Not yours. Mine.”
“Let’s talk. We can go to my house.”
“No.” Rhi shook her head so hard her hair whipped her in her face, her vehemence fueled by how badly she wanted to do exactly what he said. “I have to go. I . . . I have to go. Goodbye, Samson.”
He didn’t try to stop her from leaving, and for that she was grateful. She might have stayed and heard him out if he’d uttered one more plea, and she couldn’t do that right now.
Did you learn your lesson now? This is why you don’t hear