The Worst Best Man(106)

“Revenge,” Frankie filled in. “Did you know she was involved with Elliot?”

Aiden’s spine stiffened. The alcohol soaked into the knees of his trousers. Elliot. It wasn’t Margeaux and the fake scandal. It was Elliot and what he’d told her.

“I didn’t know,” he began, waiting for her to determine his fate.

“I’m not going to do this anymore, Aiden.” Her voice was so calm, so flat.

“Franchesca, you can’t leave.” She couldn’t. It was physically impossible for her to leave. She had possession of his heart. If she walked out, she’d leave with it.

She shook her head, and when she met his gaze, he saw the temper in her eyes. “Don’t ‘you can’t’ me. I’m sick of being in a fucking circus.”

She rose, and he grabbed onto her hips, his forehead landing on her stomach. “Franchesca.”

She pulled him to his feet. “Look at me, Aiden,” she ordered.

He did as he was told and cupped her face in his hands. She closed her eyes for a moment. And when she opened them, he knew he’d lost her.

“I want you to understand I know you didn’t have an affair with Margeaux. I know that you wouldn’t have done that to me.”

“Then why…” he trailed off. He knew why. He just wanted her to say the words that he deserved to hear.

“I want to hear you say it.” Her words echoed his own thoughts. “I want you to tell me.”

Aiden clenched his jaw. He felt powerless. Was this karma for all his years of manipulation, living for the pursuit of success at all costs? He could have had it all, and now he’d be left with everything he had before. Ironically, it added up to the equivalent of nothing without Franchesca.

“I was afraid she wasn’t right for him. She seemed so young, so immature. He was my first real friend, and I was looking out for him. At the time, I didn’t think she was the right partner for him.”

Frankie flinched at his words, and he felt her pain like it was his own wound.

“Go on,” she said flatly.

“He had just graduated and was talking about getting engaged. I thought… I thought it was a mistake. I didn’t realize how strong her feelings were for him. I’d only met Pruitt a handful of times. I thought I was doing him a favor.”

“Do you know how devastated she was?” Frankie asked, her voice low and strained.

“I had no idea until you mentioned it at the wedding. When they found their way back together again, they seemed so much better suited. She was steadier, more mature. She was good for him. I thought the time apart had been warranted.”

“She didn’t eat, Aiden. She couldn’t get out of bed. She should have been hospitalized, but instead her parents pumped her full of anti-anxiety meds and put a full-time nurse on her. She thought she’d met the one. Thought her future was just starting, and then you took it away from her because she wasn’t good enough.”

Her voice rose sharply.

“Franchesca, sweetheart. I’m so sorry. I never meant to cause any harm. I was looking out for a friend and had I known how deeply Pruitt felt for him I never would have said anything.”

“If she wasn’t good enough, then what am I, Aiden? If Pruitt ‘Blueblood’ Stockton isn’t good enough, why did you waste so much time slumming it with me?”

He gripped her arms. “You are everything to me, Franchesca. Everything I didn’t know I was missing. Everything that I can’t live without now. I love you.”

He saw them, bright in her eyes. Shock and horror. “What did you just say?” There was nothing flat and dull about her tone now.

“I said I fucking love you.”

“You do not get to manipulate me with that word! You don’t get to pull it out and throw it down when you’re in fucking trouble for hurting people that I love. You don’t get to use love as a tool to get you what you want.”

The panic was clawing its way up his throat. “It’s the truth, Franchesca. Damn it. I’m no good at this. I’ve never told anyone who wasn’t my mother that I—”

“Stop talking, Aiden! Christ. I’m a regular person. Regular people don’t have photographers following them around or rich assholes trying to destroy their relationships. Regular people don’t use love as a weapon.”

“What do you want me to do? Tell me, and I’ll do it,” Aiden demanded.

“I want you to let me go,” Franchesca shouted.

“No!” He would do anything for her. Just not that.

“You don’t get to decide to keep us together. You hurt my friends. You hurt me. And you didn’t tell me yourself. I had to hear it from your creepy brother who was waiting to pounce outside my office. Everywhere I go, there’s a Kilbourn telling me I’m not good enough.”

“Elliot is my problem. I’ll handle him.”

“He cooked this up. He and Margeaux. I’d bet your big fat checking account on it. Pru and I saw them when we were out to lunch. I thought they were dating, but they were plotting.”

“Elliot wants me to buy him out of the company. He said he’d tell you about Pru and Chip if I didn’t close the deal.”

“So why didn’t you?” Frankie demanded.

“I thought he was bluffing.”