Free Web NovelChapter 268: Chapter 268 Too Perfect to Be Anything but a Dream
Christina’s POV
"Her name is Lea Marchand, now Lea Lopez after the divorce. Her husband is an abusive drunk. He showed up at her hotel and wouldn’t leave her alone. I had to get her out of there. She’s coming back to Highrise City with me. He can’t touch her there. His family has power, old traditions. The divorce brings them shame, so they’ll do anything to make her submit..."
Hudson’s voice sounded flat and emotionless, like he was reading a weather report.
I caught some words, but most blurred into a distant hum.
All I could focus on was the heavy feeling in my chest.
What I felt was panic.
Not the usual kind, though.
When he’d received that call and rushed out, leaving me in the middle of discussing our prenup, a familiar pain washed over me like a tidal wave.
I’d seen this script before. I’d lived it.
And I also felt... relieved.
I liked Hudson. Still do. No, more than like. I loved him. Which is exactly why this hurt so much.
Maybe I just wasn’t meant to have this.
He was too perfect to be real anyway.
If your boyfriend comes home late smelling like perfume and alcohol after dining with another woman, wouldn’t you be at least a little angry?
You would. If you cared.
So why wasn’t I?
Because I was too scared. Scared of experiencing that feeling of abandonment again.
When Rowan Hale tried spreading rumors about her and Hudson, I hadn’t felt jealous then either.
I told myself it was because he shut her down quickly, making it clear he wasn’t interested.
I trusted him. He wasn’t the cheating type.
But this was different.
This striking woman in the red dress wasn’t just some singer trying to boost her profile. She was someone from his past. Someone with history. Someone he wasn’t in a hurry to tell me about.
He’d had dinner with her, come home late. He canceled our wedding dress fitting, and now he was flying her back to Highrise City.
And Hudson had accused me of not taking our wedding seriously.
If these weren’t red flags, what were?
I should be furious, jealous, throwing things, screaming.
Instead, I felt... nothing.
My heart was breaking, but I wouldn’t let myself feel it. Couldn’t go through that pain again.
I asked who she was.
No jealousy, no anger.
Just the desperate resignation of someone giving up completely.
Just like when Niall left me for Beatrice. Men always leave me for other women. It seemed to be the inevitable pattern of my life.
Of course the fairy tale was over.
I’d been floating recently—Fabrizio’s invitation, Hudson’s proposal, him being my second-chance mate. It was all too good to be true. Like winning the lottery, then finding buried treasure, then getting a call from a long-lost billionaire relative with a mysterious will.
And now the fantasy was crashing down.
Only work felt real. I could hold the necklace, feel its weight. But everything in relationships? Always made me uneasy.
"She’s just a friend," Hudson said, meeting my eyes. "An old friend. She runs operations at Titanova."
Something he saw on my face must have unsettled him.
"What’s wrong?"
"What? Nothing." My legs gave out, and I grabbed a chair, dropping heavily into it. "So she’s flying back to Highrise with you."
"Yes, I need to cut the trip short." He gave me an apologetic look. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
"It’s fine." I forced a smile. "I understand."
Of course I did.
Niall was perfect for Beatrice.
He had eyes only for her.
Hudson was perfect too. And now there was another woman. One he obviously cared about. One he’d drop everything for at the ring of a phone.
The other shoe had finally dropped.
Ysolde and Hudson called it cold feet.
But it wasn’t.
It wasn’t wedding jitters or concerns about matrimony.
It was the painful familiarity, the repetition of a pattern of betrayal I’d lived through before. I knew how this story ended because I’d already lived it once.
I didn’t know why, but I just knew.
I was always the one they chose to leave.
Franklin and Caroline chose Beatrice. Niall chose Beatrice.
Now Hudson chose Lea.
I almost expected Fabrizio to call and tell me his offer was a mistake or a prank.
"Christina? Christina?"
"Hmm?" I blinked. Hudson stood in front of me, his hands on my shoulders.
"You’re crying." He brushed his thumb across my cheek, the tip wet with tears.
"Am I?" I rubbed my eyes. "Must be the toxic fumes I inhaled."
"What fumes?"
"I was using a butane micro torch earlier. The vapors sting a bit." I pushed myself up. "I need to use the bathroom."
I escaped to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and dunked my head under the cold water.
Hudson’s voice came through. "Are you okay?"
I straightened up to look at him. "Fine."
The water concealed my pale face and the redness in my eyes.
He stared at me for a moment. "If something’s bothering you, you can tell me."
"I’m fine, really." I stuck with my lie about inhaling fumes. "It’s late, you should get some rest, you have a flight to catch."
"You never told me how the dress fitting went."
I thought about the dress—ivory silk chiffon, off-the-shoulder with a structured bodice and a long, dramatic train embroidered with tiny pearls and silver thread that caught the light.
"It was perfect."
Just like everything we once had was perfect. Too bad perfect things never belong to me.
Too bad I’ll never get to wear it now.
