Page 94 of Dirty Boss

Bonnie squeezed my arm again, and the two of them walked out the door, leaving me alone. I fixed my makeup, inhaled the granola bar, and then stood in the mirror until I could stand straight and bear the idea of facing all those people. When I pulled the door open, Bonnie and Dani nodded at me, then accompanied me back into the main room. They greeted people and mingled while I did my best to paste a smile to my face, my eyes scanning for Vaughn.

All I wanted to do was to run back to him.

I realized, standing there in a throng of bejeweled people, that Vaughn was everything to me. I loved him so much it hardly seemed possible.

Cole had been the man my parents wanted me to marry. He’d been the “right” choice, the man who could stand at my side through events like this one. James had been the man I thought I wanted. Someone who made me feel special, who took me away from the gilded cage where I’d been trapped.

Vaughn wasn’t with me for my money or my connections. He wasn’t with me because that’s what was expected. He’d found me at my worst, and I’d still been enough for him.

He made me a better, stronger person, because he knew the real me. I wanted to pay that back a thousandfold. I wanted to find him, drag him to a dark corner, and show him just how much it meant to me that he’d chosen me—the real me.

Buoyed by the rush of emotion, I separated from the pack of people surrounding Dani and Bonnie and drifted through the milling crowd. I scanned for a man a head taller than everyone else. My heart thumped at the thought of seeing him, watching the smile break over his face, and feeling the weight and warmth of his arm come around me. He was my safe harbor, my shelter from the storm of life.

A smile burst over my face when I saw him leaning against the wall about halfway down the room. He hadn’t spotted me, but he was scanning the crowd just as I was. I sped up, but a crowd of people drifted in front of me, and I lost sight of him. I ducked around voluminous skirts, teetering on my lavender heels, trying to peer around broad backs and tall updos.

There! A flash of him, still scanning the crowd. My smile widened as my heart beat for him—because I knew that as soon as I was in front of him, I’d tell him how I felt. I’d tell him those three little words and hope that he wanted to say them back.

I was so intent on Vaughn and on the words that wanted to burst from me that I failed to sense danger approaching until it was too late. One second, Vaughn was in my sights, and the path to him seemed to be clearing—and the next, my mother and father were blocking the way. I stumbled to a stop, barely catching myself before barreling into the both of them.

My mother clicked her tongue. “Graceful as always, daughter of mine,” she taunted.

My father said nothing. He just watched me with blue eyes that looked like mine, his white hair combed back from his face, his chin lifted high.

“Who is that man you walked in with?” my mother continued, her voice dropping as she flapped her hand at me. “Really, Alba, at Arlo Noble’s gala, you?—”

“You dared to show your face,” my father finished for her, his deep voice resonating in my bones. He looked me up and down, his lips curling almost into a sneer.

The urge to shrink into myself was too strong to resist. My shoulders curled as my breaths came faster. All feelings of love and light and happiness seemed to evaporate. Vaughn was impossibly far away—too far to save me from this confrontation.

“Stand up straight. You’re embarrassing yourself,” my father hissed. “After over a year without a word, this is how you greet us?”

The situation was painfully familiar. The two of them, smiling at everyone else, hissing poison in my ears. My mother impressing upon me the importance of the man who stood beside me. My father making me feel like I wasn’t good enough, then ambling off to talk about golf with one of his business associates.

It would be so easy to crumple. After all, that’s what I’d always done before. I’d toed the family line. I’d gotten engagedto the appropriate man. I’d dressed and acted exactly as was expected.

But that was then—and this was now.

For over a year, I’d been on my own. I hadn’t had their protection—or their voices in my ear to tell me exactly what they wanted me to do.

In that year, I hadn’t died. I’d suffered, yes, but I’d accepted that as balance for the way I’d behaved before. But now I stood here, stronger, more resilient, and surer of myself than ever before.

They’d already done the worst. They’d cut me off from everything and everyone I knew. They’d shown me just how conditional their love was.

Now, thanks to Vaughn, I knew what love really felt like. I knew that there was safety in love. There was a home that would always be open, somewhere to go back to. Even if I hadn’t wanted to come here tonight. If I hadn’t performed for him the way he’d asked. Even then, he’d still accept me.

So I did as my father asked and straightened my shoulders. But when I met his gaze, I watched him frown at the look in my eyes, and I lifted my chin to match his pose. “Over a year without a word, and not nearly long enough for my liking,” I said, hardly recognizing my own voice. It was the voice I’d learned in etiquette lessons, the glacial voice used for the worst putdown—but now it was infused with the strength I’d forged since I’d been on my own.

I looked down my nose at my father, then at my mother, who stared at me with wide eyes. Her cheeks were red, and she clenched her clutch with white-knuckled fingers. At least she’d stopped flapping.

Even if this was the last time I saw them, I would be at peace. The realization settled over me, and I knew that this was the end of their power over me.

I knew what real love felt like now. I knew I didn’t need to stand in ballrooms and mingle with the monied class in order to be happy.

All I needed was my independence—and Vaughn.

Saying a silent goodbye to my parents—and to the woman I used to be—I gave them both the tiniest of nods. “Mother. Father. Excuse me. There’s someone I need to speak to.”

There were three important words I had to speak, now more than ever.