Well. Fuck. “I’ve heard of them.” Who hadn’t?

They owned the most exclusive resorts in every luxurious vacation destination. I’d stayed in them when Ava and I used to take a two-week vacation every summer to the Caribbean. Pretty sure we stayed in one of their private resorts in Fiji, too.

“Yeah, great mom, well, stepmom. Dad’s not bad, just a bit absent, but he liked me. I think, looking back, it was because Lincoln was always kind of a black sheep. Partied his way through college, typical trust fund kid, you know? He’d gotten into some trouble for gambling and drugs and that kind of thing that was making it harder for Elias to bail him out of, but once we met, he settled down. Started working at the family company. Proved himself. For the first time, his dad was proud of him. Wanted us together.”

“And if you break up with him, he’s going to be embarrassed in front of his dad. If he did that to you over a waiter seeing him being rejected…” I let that trail off. Her fear was valid. What would he do to her if she embarrassed him in front of the one man he most wanted to impress?

“Yeah.”

She closed her eyes and her head tipped down.

What a fucking mess.

I gave her a minute. Hell, I needed five of my own because this was some messed up shit she was dealing with. Some pretty powerful people included.

“I have one more question and then we’re changing the topic before I start breaking shit with how pissed I am.”

That earned me a soft, quiet laugh, but she raised her head. “What is it?”

“How are you doing? Truly, with all of this?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed and sipped her wine. “I think, well, I think I’d already started emotionally leaving him once I found him cheating, if that makes sense.”

It did. Completely. Lord knows Ava emotionally detached from me months before she walked out the door. Couldn’t blame her for that one, considering I was the dick who hadn’t noticed until it was too late, though.

“So, I mean, I’m pissed. I’m mad that he cheated, that he fooled me for so long. I’m mostly pissed the asshole beat me, and I never would have imagined he’d have that kind of monster in him. And I’m sad, because we were supposed to be planning our wedding. I’d planned my life with this guy, saw forever, a family… and now, shit… everything I know has changed.”

She brushed her fingertip over the gash at her eye and flinched as she cringed.

“Your body will heal,” I said quietly. “And so will your heart. Even if it takes time, but no one gets to tell you how you heal or move on, you know? So do what you need to do and if that means healing here, like I said before, my house is yours.”

“Thanks, Kane. You’re much sweeter than Heather said you were.”