“I needed time to figure things out and now I have.” He leans down to kiss me.
I twist my face to the right and push him off.
“Stop!” I shout, picking up my bag and run to the exit. I hear his footsteps behind me.
Thank god Alayna is in the car waiting.
“Isabel! We need to talk!”
I twirl around to face him.
“There is nothing you can say that will make me forgive you for being with another woman! For lying to me! You’re getting engaged to her!”
“Not anymore!” He shouts.
“I don’t care if you just decided you don’t want her anymore-”
“I never wanted her. Jesus, don’t be so stupid, Isabel!”
“Stupid?” I laugh out loud. “Stupid is if I give you a minute of my time. Leave me the fuck alone, Sebastian.” I turn around and maintain my brave face until Alayna drives off.
“Oh god.” My voice breaks when we’re a safe distance away.
“You okay?”
“I don’t know.” I admit honestly.
“OH MY GOD!” I almost fall off my bed the next morning when Alayna’s scream wakes me up.
“What’s wrong?” I run to the living room. Looking at my watch, it’s only eight in the morning.
She’s unable to speak and passes her phone to me. It’s a video so I press play.
“We got the wrong Carter! It isn’t Sebastian who is to wed the beautiful Gabriela, but his cousin Jace Carter! In a shocking twist, Jace explains that the media just assumed Sebastian is dating Gabriela, but it was never confirmed.”
“What the hell is going on?” I put her phone down.
“That was my reaction. I think you should speak to Sebastian.”
“No!”
“I’m not telling you to get back together with him. I’m telling you to let him explain.”
I look at her and cross my arms.
“Listen.” She approaches me carefully. “Selena and I … we knew something fishy was going on. He’s obsessed with you! But we kept quiet cause of your ‘cardinal rule’.”
“Regardless Alayna, I don’t think anything he says will make me give him a second chance. I won’t survive another break-up with him.”
“Aren’t you curious?”
I look at her and shake my head as my heart beats furiously. “No, I don’t want anything to do with him, it hurts too much.”
The doorbell rings and Alayna opens the door. Sebastian stands there with a crazed look in his eyes. He looks at me and walks in.
“Did you see it?” He asks then shows me a gossip magazine with the same news on it.
“Sebastian …” I shake my head.
“We can finally be together.” He looks at me in a mixture of hope and fear.
“No, we can’t.” I tell him sadly.
“Let me explain.” He begs and takes my hands, but I immediately pull them away.
“I don’t want you to explain. I don’t want anything from you. Just leave me alone!” I push him out of the door and slam it on his face.
“It’s time you come back home.” I hear through the door.
After finishing classes for the day, I head home and see Jace pacing in front of my building.
“Hi, Jace right?”
“I need you to come with me.” He grabs my arm.
“What’s going on?!” I ask.
“It’s Sebastian, he’s hurt.”
“What?” He leads us to his car, and I ask him a million questions, but he answers none. He just says he asked for me and that he’s okay.
Ten minutes later, he rushes me into a bar, nodding to the bartender, and pulls me to the back and into a private room. I look around but it’s empty.
“Jace?” I turn around but all I see is the door closing, leaving me inside this big room alone. And then it’s locked. “What the fuck?”
“Isabel.” I turn to see Sebastian walking in from an adjoining room.
I look over his body and realize that he’s a hundred percent okay. “Are you serious?” He did this to get me in a locked room alone.
“Calm down, I needed to talk to you.” He advances slowly with his palms up.
“This is fucked up.”
“It’s fucked up that you want to end us.”
“I’m not doing this. Let me out.” I cross my arms, but he just shakes his head. “Oh my god, you’re actually holding me hostage!”
“I told you!” He grabs my arms and shakes me. “That I’d do it if it meant I’d keep you.
“You’re the one who got engaged.”
“Because I was forced to!”
“What do you mean?”
“If I didn’t break up with you and get engaged to Gabriela, Juan would’ve hurt you, my dad, and everyone I care about.”
“What are you talking about? We aren’t in some thriller movie. Why would Juan hurt us? Who is he?”
“Someone more powerful than the Carters. He’s dangerous. I didn’t leave you out of choice. I had to.”
I cry out when I realize he didn’t truly leave me.
“I spent the last month thinking that you slowly got over me, that you wanted someone different, someone who better suited you.” I rub my chest as my emotions take hold of me.
“How can you think that?” He asks softly.
“How can I think that?” I ask incredulously. “You left me in the coldest way possible. You went to her! While I was sleeping in your bed, you were with her. And then you told me you didn’t want me anymore! So, don’t you dare pretend that it’s my fault for believing your words!”
“Fuck.” He paces back and forth, grabbing the back of his neck. “I was never with her. I had to do it this way for you to stay away.”
“You destroyed me.”
“Angel.” He whispers approaching me.
“No.” I say with assertion. “The only way I stay and listen is if you don’t touch me. Not once. Start talking, Sebastian.”
“Remember when I told you my dad was a mess after my mother died?” I nod. “He still saw women, but they were never anything serious. Unknowingly, he began an affair with Juan Estadas’ brother’s wife, Maria. My dad didn’t know she was married. One night he brought her home when I was at a sleepover and caught her going through my mother’s things which he kept in a drawer. He was furious and kicked her out. She had to walk home because my dad kicked her out without her bag or phone.”
Sebastian clears his throat twice before continuing. “She was raped then walked back home to her husband, Tomaso, who loved her very much. He was distraught and wanted justice, so he made her file a report to the police. She told them everything, including the fact that she was coming from my father’s apartment. Her testimony was meant to be confidential. A month later, she committed suicide because she couldn’t live with the aftermath of the rape, and a cop drunkenly blurted out that she had been having an affair with my dad. Her husband went into a deep depression and then committed suicide a month later. He couldn’t live with his wife’s betrayal.”
I gasp.
“Juan wanted revenge. He demanded a meeting with my father and got one. Not many say no to Juan Estadas. He told my father what happened to Maria and Tomaso and my father was distraught. He couldn’t sleep for weeks and fully blamed himself for their deaths. Anyways, I walked in during the meeting and was so confused. Everything seemed so tense. Juan told me that I have to get married to his daughter, that we’d get engaged when she turns eighteen, otherwise, he would hurt me, my dad, and anyone who mattered to us. At that point, I had many girls and never felt anything for any of them. I thought I was different, that the love thing wasn’t for me.
So, I agreed. Not that we had much of a choice but back then it was easy for me to agree. They drew up contracts and I signed. I have to marry their daughter or else they have control of all my father’s businesses. They put that in the contract and forced us to sign under duress. My dad was going through depression cause of what happened and
didn’t care about the business anymore, he thought he deserved to lose everything. But he was against using me to settle the score, he was against me marrying Juan’s daughter. But I couldn’t care less, and I wanted to protect my family, so I signed a contract with them saying I would marry Gabriela. So, I am telling you,” he goes to his knees and takes my hands, “it was going to be an engagement by coercion, and nothing more. I love you. You’re the only woman I want as my wife!”
Shaking my head at all the information I just learned, I’m struck speechless.
“I … that’s so sad. A tragedy.” My voice quivers as I think about Maria and her husband’s suicides.
“But it still doesn’t explain where you were all those late nights you’d come back late, smelling like alcohol? You weren’t with her?”
“No.” He squeezes my hand. “When you saw us on TV, that was the first time I met her. All those late nights were me trying to figure out a way out of this mess. I hired five personal investigators to track Juan and his people. I wanted to gain leverage over them and use it to get myself out of this engagement. I was helping them because I was desperate to find something.”
“Did you find something?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “I left the opera because Juan was at my dad’s place and they asked me to come. Juan was in Club 18 when I got in a fight with that guy over you. He saw us and was furious. That’s why Troy kept trying to get us to go home. Juan found out about you and wanted Gabriela and I to get engaged as soon as possible. I blew up. I couldn’t get over how hurt you were when I had to leave the opera, so I told him to fuck off and that the marriage contract won’t hold up in court. He smiled and showed me a live video of you on your couch in your dorm. He assured me that you were okay, but I had to check myself. My dad and I rushed there. It wasn’t a robbery, it was them. They chloroformed you and stole some items just to prove that they can hurt anyone they want.”
“Wait! You were there! I heard you!” I start pacing. “You were saying it’s your fault! I heard you shouting.”
“Yeah, that was me.”
“B-but, you were in Long Beach!” I tell him, backing away.
“No, I even lied to Jax.”
“You … why?!”
“Because I needed you to believe I was done, that I didn’t care. They said if I come near you again, they’d do worse! I couldn’t fail you a third time! I’ve seen you hurt more than enough times in this lifetime! They’re not just businessmen, they’re drug lords. They own the largest drug cartel in the world. They are dirty and their methods of coercion would scare the devil himself. They recently lost a lot of business as people aren’t willing to work with them – too scared to.
So, it would really help if they were associated with the Carter name since we’re considered to be a philanthropic and charitable family.”
“What about what his daughter wants? Did she want you?”
“No. We shared pleasantries but that’s it. She was crying after you broke down in my apartment. After you left, I was at the bar and she came up to me and whispered, ‘We need to find a way out of this.’ She’s just doing what her dad’s asking her to.”
“But why? It’s America. She can marry who she wants.”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s the only thing she knows? All I know is that Juan locked her up, she was barely allowed out growing up and that she went to an all-girls school.” He rolls his eyes. “Juan kept trying to show off how untouched she is.” He cringes.
“So, how come you’re free now? Why don’t you have to marry her anymore?”
“Because Jace is going to. He’s my cousin, a Carter. As long as she marries a Carter, they don’t care.” He responds. “Angel-” He reaches for my hands, but I inch away, evading his touch.
“Give me a few seconds to think about this. And Francisco? Did he know about this?” I think about all the times Sebastian acted weird in front of him.
“Yeah. He’s Juan’s nephew and works with him. I didn’t want him to notice how much you’re starting to mean to me. So, I was distant when he was around.”
I nod my head. “I remember.”
“But again, at Club 18, he clearly saw what you mean to me and that’s when things got more intense because he told Juan.”
This influx of information is overwhelming. “I felt so stupid after our break-up. I thought you didn’t love me. Or if you did, it wasn’t enough. You made me feel like I wasn’t enough for you.”
“How could you think that?”
“How could I think that?” I get angry and look at him. “You told me you didn’t want me. And now what? Jace is going to marry her?” I continue pacing.
“The night I was drunk and saw you at the bar. I begged him to take my place, to marry Gabriela because I couldn’t. Isabel-” He tries to hold me.
“No!” I push him away.
“We can finally be together, there’s nothing stopping us.”
“Sebastian, do you not understand what you did?” I ask him incredulously. “You’ve been lying to me this whole time! Every time I asked you where you were, you lied. I was lied to by the person I was most honest, vulnerable, and raw, with.”
“To protect you, to protect us!”
“You started our thing knowing what the future holds for you, that you would have to get engaged to another woman!” I scream at him. “And then, you tried to find ways out of it while being with me! Y-you should’ve told me,” I wipe a tear. “You should have told me about her! I should’ve known so I could’ve had the option to stay away from you! I should’ve known so I could’ve prevented falling in love with you. I should’ve fucking known Sebastian,” I go up to him and shove his chest, “so that I could’ve prevented all this pain I’ve been feeling!”
“I needed you to fall for me, Isabel!” He shouts back.
“Why?”
“So that you’d forgive me for all of this!”
“Then you are more selfish than I ever thought possible.” I hiss at him, utterly disgusted that he’d do this to me, to us.
“Yes, Isabel.” He bangs on his chest. “I am and will always be selfish when it comes to you. When we first started … I never knew I would become fucking obsessed. I thought it would be just sex, that’s why I didn’t tell you in the beginning. By the time I realized my feelings for you, it was too late. I couldn’t leave you. The thought of letting you go, letting you live life, date other men and move on …” he chuckles darkly, “no fucking way.”
“So, you kept me for some egotistical, possessive, selfish reason?” I retort. I shove him again. “So that I don’t move on when the whole time you’ve had a fiancé?”
“She wasn’t my fiancé then! And yes, I won’t lie! The thought of you touching another guy makes me want to tear this city apart! I couldn’t fucking help it, Isabel! You felt it, you feel it, the pull between us! How the fuck was I ever meant to resist that? I know I was selfish, but I couldn’t let you go! And I wasn’t about to risk you leaving me, so I didn’t tell you. I know I’m wrong, I know I’m crazy but losing you wasn’t an option. I needed you, I needed your touch, your pussy, your everything. I need you, Isabel.”
My body shakes at his passionate words. He’s lied to me for so long … how am I meant to trust him?
“You should’ve told me.” I tell him through my tears.
“Why?” He shouts. “Would you have preferred if I never touched you? Pursued you? Would you have preferred if I used a million girls to try to forget you?!”
“Stop!”
“Would you have preferred if I ignored you and got engaged into a family I fucking despise?”
“Stop!” I shout. “I want to leave.”
“No.” He pulls me to his chest. “No more running away! If I told you from the beginning, we wouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t have fallen in love with you and right now, I’d be walking down an aisle saying I do to a girl who isn’t meant for me. The best thing I did was not tell you because I wouldn’t have you.�
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I turn my head. He’s right in a way. If he told me about her, I would’ve ended things. “I understand that you didn’t tell me at the beginning. We didn’t anticipate what we’d become. But when I asked you to be my boyfriend, you should’ve told me then. When I asked you the other million times if anything was wrong, you should’ve told me then. You know I was already obsessively in love with you. You should’ve told me so that we could’ve dealt with it together. And if that meant us taking a break until you figure a way out, then that would’ve been the right thing to do!
Taming Sebastian (Sawson's Royal College Book 2) Page 24