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"Are you crazy?" Bryony sputtered out "Why would I want to go listen to his spiel about his plans for the resort?"
"Now, Bry, I didn’t iine you for a coward," Silas said in exasperation "By now everyone knohat happened They don’t blame you"
"I don’t care what they think," Bryony said in a low voice "I was prepared to be the brunt of their censure when I went to New York to tell Rafael to go ahead with the plans, that I wouldn’t fight him"
"Then what’s the problem?" Mamaw asked
"I don’t want to see him Why can’t either of you understand that? Do you have any idea howyou can do is shoith your head held high The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you can start coe Better to rip it off and have it done with than to delay the inevitable"
Bryony sighed "Okay, I’ll go If I do, then will you please leave me alone and let me deal with this my oay? I know you’re worried but this isn’t easy for s will be a lot better after today You’ll see"
Bryony wasn’t as convinced but she allowed Silas and Ma would be held It took everything she had not to run back out the door when Silas led her to a front-row seat
Talk about being a masochist She’d have a front-row seat in which to listen to the man she loved announce his plans for a resort hed and sank into one of the folding chairs Mamaw and Silas took the spots on either side of her Several people stopped by to talk to Silas Some even shot sympathetic looks in her direction
Yep, it was clear everyone knehat a naive fool she’d been
At least no one was yelling at her for allowing the outsider to come in and develop the island Yet
Rupert strode in a minute later, an uncharacteristic smile plastered on his face It wasn’t his politician sht He looked, for lack of a better word, giddy
He held up his hands for quiet and then frohen the din didn’t diminish He cleared his throat and scowled harder He was forever coh respect by his constituents
Finally Silas stood, held up his hands and hollered, "Quiet, people The runtled look when everyone hushed Then he looked over the audience and smiled "Today we have Rafael de Luca of Tricorp Invest to talk about the piece of property he recently acquired here on the island Give him your undivided attention, please"
It took all of Bryony’s self-restraint not to swivel in her seat to see if he was here Many of the assean toup the aisle
Rafael stepped to the podium and Bryony was shocked by his appearance First, he earing jeans And a T-shirt He looked tired and haggard His hair was unke
There were hollows under his eyes and a gray pallor to his skin that hadn’t been present before
He cleared his throat and glanced over the audience before his gaze finally came to rest on her
He looked…nervous It didn’t seem possible that this ultraconfident businesse
She watched in astonish on the podiuain, there was a rawness to his eyes thatand one thing only I wanted to buy property that Bryony Morgan had put up for sale"
Several muttered insults filtered around the room, but Rafael continued on, undaunted
"When it became clear that she would attach stipulations to the sale of the land, I conspired to seduceto do whatever necessary to convince her I’d do as she asked without having to commit her conditions onto paper"
Bryony would have bolted to her feet, but Math
"Sit You need to listen to this, Bryony Let hiry ain She slowly slid back into her seat, caught by the intensity in his stare
"I’m not proud of what I did But it was part and parcel of the kind ofto return until it was ti But my plane crashed It took weeks to recover and I lost all rateful for that accident It changed my life"
The room went completely silent on the heels of his last statement Everyone seemed to lean forward in anticipation of what he’d say next
"I caain my memory What I did was fall in love with this island and with Bryony For real this time She’s told me on multiple occasions that I don’t have to always stay the person I was, that I can change and be whoever I want to be She’s right I don’t want to be the person I was any longer I want to be someone I can be proud of, soan loves"