Chapter 171

“Why don’t you come inside,” Tina said, stepping inside from the door, allowing me the room to enter. “We have so much to talk about.”

I was hesitant to go in. After all, I came here to give her a piece of my mind, without any intention of this becoming a two-person conversation. She seemed almost pleased to be having this conversation with me.

“Don’t be shy,” Tina said. “This conversation is long overdue, isn’t it?”

She wasn’t wrong there, so I gathered my courage and stepped into her mansion. Immediately I felt underdressed. Her house was like a museum with white tiles and towering columns. Expensive oil paintings hung on the walls. Fancy vases sat in glass cases atop pedestals.

“Come into the sitting room. We’ll be more comfortable there,” Tina said to me. Then she shouted, “Peters! Tea in the sitting room, please.”

From deeper in the house, a voice answered, “Right away, Miss.”

At my curious look, Tina shrugged. “My butler. I suppose you wouldn’t know but good help is hard to find. He’s been with me for years, an absolute gem! I’ll never trade him.”

I should hope not, I thought, since he was a person and not a thing.

Following Tina, we entered one off into a side room with towering bookcases built into the wall. A pair of antique sofas faced toward each other with a wooden coffee table in between.

Tina sat on one of the sofas. I moved to the one opposite.

“Now,” she said. “Let’s go ahead and clear this whole thing up. You said Logan is a married man? Am I to take that to mean that the two of you are married?”

I paled a little, realizing my error. Logan hadn’t wanted to share that detail, and here I was blabbing it. Too late now.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I see,” she said. Her eye twitched ever so slightly, but with the smirk on her face, it was barely noticeable. “I guess you have your reasons for withholding that from me, but it hardly changes anything, does it?”

“Doesn’t it?” I tried to remember why I was here, forcing myself to rekindle the fury within me that had lead me here. “I wanted to make it as clear as I possibly can that whatever intentions you have for Logan won’t work. He’s my husband and that’s the end of it.”

At once, Tina started to laugh. “Oh, you are a riot. You think I’m after Logan for real?” She laughed harder. Too hard, I thought, but I was already suspicious of her. Maybe I was being unfair.

At the same time, Peters, an older man in a suit, delivered a tray with a teapot and two cups. He immediately set to fixing a cup. When he finished, he handed the cup to Tina, who only now seemed to compose herself.

“Do you like sugar with your tea, Miss?” Peters asked me.

“Oh, just leave hers, Peters. She can sort herself out,” Tina said. Peters nodded and left the room.

The tea was a polite enough gesture, I supposed, but I had no intention of drinking it.

“If you aren’t after Logan, then why did you invite him to start spending nights here?” I asked.

Tina shrugged. “It would make the ruse look better, don’t you think? No one is going to believe that I don’t spend nights with my boyfriend. But really, assistant, what’s the harm?”

“My name is Hazel,” I corrected, but, just like all the times before, she ignored me.

“Is my house not big enough? You think he’s not going to have his own room while he’s here?” Tina continued. “Or… no… I can see it now…” She narrowed her eyes, looking closer at my face. “You don’t trust him.”

I trusted him fine. It was Tina I didn’t trust.

“I understand your worry,” Tina said. “After all, he’s so much more important than you. Of finer birth. Handsome and popular. I’m sure he’s constantly surrounded by women hoping to catch his eye. You must constantly be thinking, how can I possibly keep him from straying?”

“It’s not like that –”

“You don’t have to lie to me. I can see the forest for the trees,” Tina said. “And because I can, I know just how much Logan is sacrificing to keep you hidden away at his side.”

Her words caught me off-guard this time. “What are you talking about?”

Tina sipped at her tea. “Don’t be naïve. Everyone knows that Logan is set to inherit the family business from his grandfather. He’s practically been training to take over all his life. But then, apparently, he meets you and a wrench gets thrown in the works.”

“Logan and I make each other better…”

“If Grandpa Hatfield finds out about you, Logan will lose it all,” Tina said. “That’s simple facts. It’s why you brought me in. It’s why Logan wants to keep you a secret. It’s why you are going to have to hide in the shadows your whole life while Logan is off playing pretend with me.”

In my heart, I knew that to be true. Logan had practically said as much himself. But I had always thought that at a certain point, we wouldn’t have to keep the secret anymore.

Someday, I thought we could be honest about our relationship, even to his grandfather. Looking at it now, that likely had been wishful thinking.

Would Logan truly lose everything, by choosing to be with me openly?

My chest ached down to the core, because I knew the answer was yes.

“Logan can stay here for appearances sake, or not, if you prefer,” Tina said. “But you have to face facts, assistant. Logan will never be able to tell anyone that you are his wife.”

I left Tina’s mansion feeling numb. I had gone there to tell her to back off of Logan, and somehow ended up being the one off-kilter.

Back in the car, I called Logan before I could do anything else. I didn’t want to confront him about what I’d learned, because I already knew it was the truth and there wasn’t anything to be done about it. I just wanted to hear his voice.

I wanted to remember why all of this was worth it.

“Hey, there you are,” he said, a smile in his voice. “I was hoping you would call me.”

Closing my eyes, I let his warm baritone flood over and through me, soothing any lingering pains.

Tina’s words had unsettled me. I hated the thought of Logan sacrificing so much to be with me, and I had no doubt it would eventually come to that. Logan wouldn’t want to keep me a secret for the rest of our lives. How could he?

What if we had children? Children couldn’t be so easily explained away.

“You could have called me,” I said, attempting to be flirty. It came out a bit flat.

Logan noticed. “You okay?”

“Long day,” I covered.

Logan hummed. Then after a moment’s pause, he said, “Why don’t you come over to my place tonight?”

It had been such a long time since I’d been to his place. “You sure?”

“Positive. I’d give anything to see you.”

“Okay.” Speaking with Logan, I felt so confident that everything would be okay. Yet the minute we hung up the phone, my worries began to creep back inside of me.

I couldn’t shake the feeling like my marriage to Logan had an expiration date, and the numbers were quickly ticking down.