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Inigo’s heart was breaking at the pain and humiliation he heard in his sister’s voice.
“I had no idea who she was to you, Bia.”
“Fair enough. But I never want to see her again,” Bianca said. Just then Derek Caruthers entered the room, rushing to his wife’s side.
“Bianca, are you okay? I’m sorry I wasn’t here with you.”
“It’s fine. I’m glad we’re leaving this morning. I’m ready to get back home,” she said. “I never thought I’d see her again.”
“I’m sorry,” Scarlet said. “I had no idea you two knew each other or the circumstances. Did you know?”
She pivoted on her husband, Alec, who just wrapped his arm around her and hugged her close. “Of course I knew he’d had an affair with Marielle. I didn’t know you knew her.”
Inigo just walked out of the room. He was angry. All of the emotions that he’d felt when Jose had died, and he’d learned the truth, came back. He knew that wasn’t a healthy space for him to be in and ignored his father’s calls and his brothers as he first walked and then ran back to the guesthouse where he was staying. He changed into his running gear and left the house through the glass doors that led to the beach. He was vaguely aware that it was cold, and a light rainy snow was falling, but he didn’t feel any of it.
He only heard the pounding of his feet on the pavement of the path that was empty on this wintry January morning. He concentrated on each step, trying not to allow any thoughts in his head, but it was hard to keep them out.
He had always had a gift for attracting relationships that were toxic, but this had to totally take the cake. He’d found the one woman in the world he really couldn’t be with. It would destroy his family if he was with her.
And yeah, it had been a fun hookup, but there was another part of him that wondered if this was his way of making sure that nothing distracted him from racing. From winning. He’d always been the kind of athlete that pushed everything aside to win. And he was close to being the champion, which had been his one goal since he’d started in the Formula One junior program at fourteen.
He also felt the pain of realizing that his idol had feet of clay. That he was human and real and that he hadn’t been perfect. The cold air felt like a blade in his lungs as he continued to run, and he veered off the path and into the small town, where everything was closed. No one was out this early on New Year’s Day.
Just him.
Just the man who had too much on his mind and no easy way to sort it out. Should he just let Marielle go? Should he try to get vengeance for Bianca? He couldn’t help it, but that thought had entered his mind. Maybe it was that he felt she’d fooled him too. She had to know who he was. But how could she have? He’d been on a different circuit that year when Bianca had been pregnant and Jose had cheated.
Many times Inigo had wondered if he’d still been shadowing Jose, would his brother-in-law have thought twice about cheating?
At the end of the day, was he to blame? He’d pursued winning at any cost, and had turning his back on Bianca and Jose that year been part of the other man’s downfall?
He had no way of knowing. Jose was dead, and Bianca had never wanted to talk about it.
He stopped running, leaning forward to put his hands on his knees, his breath still sawing in and out of his lungs. His exhalations were loud in his head but didn’t drown out his thoughts. He could fix this. Make up for anything he might or might not have done back in the day.
He could have Marielle and publicly dump her. Would that even bother her? She’d been a married man’s mistress.
But even as the thought formed, he knew that it didn’t matter. She needed to know that the Velasquez family weren’t to be toyed with. The rational part of his mind warned that there was more to the story than he knew. That the “facts” he had came from the dirt that Alec had dug up on her on the internet. Most of the mistresses had been named but Marielle hadn’t been on the list.
But he could only listen to his gut and his heart. His heart remembered the paleness of his sister’s face as she’d seen him standing next to Marielle. His gut remembered the strident tone that Marielle had used before walking out. His body remembered her twisting under him the night before.
He could have it all. The woman he lusted after and revenge for his family.
Hiding at her parents’ house wasn’t ideal. The maids were in and out of her room, her mom sent a tray with lunch, and then her dad knocked on her door. And finally, Marielle faked needing to visit a friend having an emergency and left. Her brother was in the garage again when she came downstairs, and she got it. She wished her problems were as easy for the world to see as Darian standing there with an unlit cigarette. But hers were different.
She was the one with a weakness for men and making dumb choices…could that be called addiction too?
She left in a cloud of muddy snow as she sped away from her problems. There was a wistful sort of regret that engulfed her as she got on the Long Island Expressway and headed back toward Manhattan.
Dang.
This must be how Inigo felt when he was racing. There was a certain freedom from everything but the road and concentrating on the path ahead of her. Maybe she should take up driving professionally.
As soon as the thought popped into her head, she hit an icy patch and her car hydroplaned for a minute, fishtailing wildly on the road. She took her foot off the gas as she saw her life flash before her eyes.
Damn.
She slowed the car and pulled onto the shoulder. Her hands were shaking, and her heart was racing. She didn’t want to die. She sat there. The silence in the car made her ears ring, and finally she turned on the radio. “About Last Night” was playing, so she flipped the station and heard Debussy’s “La mer.” Yeah, classical was good. Just what she needed right now.
She dug into her purse and found her phone. Scarlet had texted her.
Are you okay? I wish you hadn’t left like that.
What could she say?
I’m not great. I’m sorry. I could tell I was freaking her out, and you know I’m not good in those situations. I hope I didn’t make things awkward for you.
Scarlet and Siobhan had been the first women friends she’d genuinely had in years, and she hadn’t wanted to screw it up. But maybe she had. Maybe she should stop trying and just enjoy the train wreck that was usually her life.
You didn’t. Well, it was awkward, but I feel like both of you were freaked. If you want to talk, I’m going to be in the city until Friday. Let’s have coffee…by that I mean you drink the coffee and I smell it and pretend that I’m having some.
Marielle felt a wave of relief go through her.
Thank you. I’d love that. I’m heading back to New York now. My parents’ house was stifling. I’m sorry again for this morning.
I know the feeling. No problem. Can’t wait to catch up.
She tossed the phone back into her bag before she asked for Inigo’s number. A part of her felt like she should say something to resolve the situation with him, but another part—the smarter part—knew there would be no resolution. She could keep him in her memories as a fun night. And that was all.
Her phone rang, and she glanced at the caller ID. It was her friend Siobahn Murphy, who was the lead singer of Venus Rising. The two liked to party together, and she was always down for a good time. Just what Marielle needed at this moment.
“Hey, girl, happy New Year,” she said as she answered the speakerphone and got back on the road.
No more driving fast to outrun her problems. She sat in the slow lane going a respectable speed.
“Hiya. Scar texted me,” Siobahn said. “What the hell happened?”
“I’m not sure. I mean, I met this cute guy and he was funny and flirty. Even his dad was funny, encouraging him to talk to me. We kissed at midnight…it was hot,” Marielle said. More than hot. It had made her see him as more than a hookup. She had to be honest with herself. She hated the way things had ended with Inigo. But she doubted there was any way back from the current situation.
“Yeah, and then?”
“Then one thing led to another, and I spent the night with him,” she said.
Siobahn wasn’t fishing for lurid sex details. But there was no way to explain the thing without mentioning that.
“Then this morning he invited me to breakfast with his family, and I knew Scar would be there, so I was, like, sure,” Marielle said. Then she walked in and saw Jose’s wife staring at her like she was the most loathsome woman on the face of the planet… Maybe she’d skip mentioning that bit to Siobahn. “And…”
“I know. You don’t have to say it. I’m in Manhattan. Come to my place. We can eat ice cream or drink wine or do whatever you need. Don’t go to your place alone,” Siobahn said. “You need someone to remind you that you aren’t that woman anymore.”
“Thanks,” she said. She had changed a lot from who she’d been at twenty-one, and it had been a long hard road with lots of pitfalls. But she had changed. She hadn’t made peace with all of her past, but one thing she had made were good friends like Siobahn. She’d been the one who’d introduced her to Scarlet and had started her on this path.
“I’ll text you when I’m close.”
“I’ll be here. I’m eating leftover ham, which isn’t healthy, but I’m a bit hungover,” Siobahn said.
Marielle had to laugh. She didn’t drink like that anymore but remembered those days. She hung up with her friend, realizing that Bianca might never forgive her, but Marielle had to find a way to forgive herself. She couldn’t keep beating herself up for old sins.
Not saying it would be easy, but she was going to definitely make that one of her resolutions.
Four (#ub57a9d35-265d-5a1f-a803-1ec1f7f9745e)
The weather this first week of January reflected Marielle’s mood as she left her building on the Upper West Side. It was bitterly cold with a messy sleet and rain falling. The doorman held an umbrella over her head as she dashed to her waiting car. Her driver held the door open as she slid onto the leather seat and the welcome heat. She thanked them.
Scarlet had been true to her word and helped her out despite the fact that it must have caused friction with her new in-laws. But then again Scar knew what it was like to be the center of negative attention. They’d grown up in similar worlds, Marielle thought.
But even career pluses couldn’t take away the ache inside when she thought of that encounter with Bianca. It wasn’t that she’d really considered Inigo to be a guy she wanted in her life. For all she knew, they might not even be compatible. He might be one of those guys who drank beer out of a bottle and didn’t use a coaster…or something like that. But the fact that she didn’t get to let it fall apart the way her relationships always did…that bugged her. That had to be what was bothering her.
But she couldn’t miss a guy whom she’d slept with one night and that was it.
She wouldn’t let herself.
She wasn’t that girl.
She had never needed a man after Jose. He’d changed that dream of hers. The one where she met a guy and he swept her off her feet and they lived some sort of fantasy life providing her a Disney Channel–perfect family, not the messed-up one that was hers. But she’d learned that she was better on her own.
Men were fun.
Inigo had been fun.
Until…
But that was in the past and she was moving on. She had an interview with a lifestyle brand that wanted to work with her. She had a manager who had worked hard to get the appointment for her, and she was glad for it. She’d even gone all in and dressed like Blair from Gossip Girl. She wanted to look the part of what they wanted. On every influencer account she’d checked out, the look was a mix between Jackie O and The Official Preppy Handbook.
The heels she wore were designer, but her manager said if she wanted the work, she needed to make a decision to either flaunt her family name or hide it. She couldn’t use it when she wanted to and then drop it when she didn’t.
So she’d decided to use her middle name instead of her last name and pretend she wasn’t part of one of America’s richest families. She didn’t want to rely on the name. She’d seen what it had done to her brother Darian. Holding an unlit cigarette in the garage and looking like a trapped animal. But her brother believed in the family mission statement and would do whatever Carlton instructed.
Marielle and Carlton had never gotten along. As her father’s trusted right-hand man, he’d been the one to step in and divert the media attention from her after the affair with Jose had been made public. He’d quieted things down and done his magic to keep her out of the spotlight. But she still didn’t like him. He always wanted Marielle and her brothers to present this perfect Kennedy-esque image of family.
They were more like the behind-the-scenes Kennedys. The ones who’d been real and human and made mistakes.
“Excuse me,” she said, bumping into a man who had stepped out of a building while talking to the man behind him.
She stumbled, he caught her and she smiled her thanks. He smiled back and then she heard someone clear his throat behind him. She glanced over the man’s shoulder and straight into the dark chocolate eyes of Inigo Velasquez.
“Inigo!”
She turned on her heel, but she was already a bit off balance and stumbled for one step before straightening her spine and continuing along the sidewalk.
“Have a good one, Marielle,” he called after her.
She lifted one hand and gave him the bird as she kept walking. She knew he didn’t deserve that from her, but she was just ticked off about him and the situation.
She’d almost gotten him out of her head, and of course she’d see him again. It was kind of like the Marielle law. If she never wanted to see a man again, they’d run into each other. That included her father, Carlton and former lovers.
She finally got to the ad agency for her appointment and stepped into the lobby, moving off to the side to compose herself for a moment.
Was it just her, or did Inigo look even cuter than she remembered? His lips had almost lifted in a smile before tightening. She thought for one second he might have remembered the fun they had before he recalled who she really was.
She took a deep breath. None of that mattered now. She pulled her iPhone from her bag and opened the voice memo that Siobahn had recorded for her. She had made up a song for her to remind Marielle of her new path.
Marielle rules the world,
A badass who makes things happen,
Leaving only smiles in her wake.
She smiled and listened to it two more times. Now the song was in her head. Siobahn had used notes that were designed to stick in the listener’s mind. And as she tucked her phone away after checking her lipstick, makeup and hair, she heard the song playing in her mind.
She smiled at the security guard and gave him her ID. He raised one eyebrow at her last name, but it wasn’t uncommon, so she just kept smiling as he asked her to put her bag on the scanner and then cleared her to go into the building.
Inigo Velasquez was a memory. A happy memory that she had left behind.
Yeah, right.
Dante Peterson punched Inigo on the arm as Marielle walked away. Both of them were unable to tear their eyes off her. How was it possible she had gotten even more beautiful since he’d last seen her?
She gave him the finger, and he almost smiled before he caught himself. She was his family’s enemy. He had to remember that.
“Dude…she doesn’t like you,” Dante said.
“That’s not true. She liked me just fine. I’m the one who doesn’t like her,” Inigo said.
“Sure you are,” he said.
“Screw you, Dante,” Inigo said. “She’s the other woman. The one Jose was cheating with.”
“Well, damn. That really sucks.”
“Agreed.”
“So how do you know her?” he asked as the Moretti Motors driver pulled up and got out to hold the door to the Vallerio sedan. The car was classy, powerful and the hallmark of the vehicles that Moretti Motors made.
“Where to, Mr. Velasquez?” the driver asked.
“We need to go to the Four Seasons,” he informed the driver, sliding into the car first with Dante following behind him.
He really didn’t have time to think about Marielle. There were some suspicious things going on with the racing team at Moretti Motors, and Inigo had just left a meeting with the team boss. It was believed that someone on one of the teams was sabotaging his car to ensure that Esteban Acola, the top driver on the Moretti Racing team, would win.
