“Why did you go into my house?” I suddenly had to know.

Her eyes snapped to mine and they conveyed so many things, yet I understood nothing. “I didn’t know it was your house.”

I cocked my head. “That wasn’t my question.”

Her smile warmed my heart, and I knew I needed to be responsible for many more of them. “I don’t really know. I felt drawn to it somehow. Maybe I’m the stalker.”

We both smiled. I really liked this girl, whoever she was.

“Thank you, Leo. And thank you for the lift.” She clenched her teeth and scrunched her nose. “I’m sorry I’ve inconvenienced you.”

“It’s no bother.”

I touched her arm briefly, and I could’ve sworn her body shivered. “Well, I guess I’ll see you round, then?”

“No doubt we’ll run into each other.”

The lift door opened and she walked in and turned around to face me. Our eyes locked for the last few seconds before the heavy grey doors closed, stealing her away from me.

I turned but only made it halfway across the lobby before the blood in my veins went cold—I was now face-to-face with Isabel Fontaine. She was a little intimidating when bossing her staff around, but at that moment she looked more like the mythical creature Medusa with snakes for hair, turning everyone to stone.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed.

The cogs in my brain turned too slowly to make up a believable lie on the spot. I wasn’t much of a liar anyway, and I’d done nothing wrong. “I just dropped Juliette home.”

“And why, pray tell, would you be doing anything with my daughter?”

“She had a panic attack, and I drove her home in her car as I didn’t think she should be driving. I’m going home now.”

She was silent for a minute, probably deciding whether I was telling the truth. I’d left out a few details, but I hadn’t lied.

“Okay. Well, I’d rather you stayed away from her. I can’t have my friends seeing her with my staff. People talk, if you know what I mean, and she’s with Richard.”

“I’m aware of her status, Mrs Fontaine.”

“Juliette is unstable. She needs what Richard can give her and she needs to focus on securing him.”

I just stood there listening to the biggest load of crap I thought I’d ever heard. Juliette was dealing with a psycho mother and a dickhead who didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as her. My blood had gone from cold to hot and was reaching boiling point when she continued.

“I saw the way she was looking at you last night and it was highly inappropriate. She needs to focus on the prize. You are a distraction.”

And the prize would be… Richard? I wondered to myself. Richard was a prize douchebag.

“I just dropped her home. No big deal.”

“Look. Richard plans to propose soon. It’s what I’ve always wanted. I mean, what she’s always wanted.” It now appeared she was talking to herself, despite addressing me, mumbling almost incoherently. “We’re so close. Richard and Juliette will be married soon.” She opened her eyes wider and poked me in the chest. “If you mess this up for me, I’ll kill you.”

I felt awkward and wanted to get the hell away from the crazy woman. I was starting to get a clearer picture of Juliette’s life, and it wasn’t nearly as pretty as she was. “I’d better go.”

“You’re a liability. I could put up with my friends flirting with you, but not my daughter. She needs to focus on Richard, and I can’t always be watching her.”

“With all due respect, Mrs Fontaine, I don’t think you’re giving Juliette enough credit. She’s a grown woman who can make her own decisions.” I didn’t care if I was speaking out of turn at that point. She probably wasn’t going to hire me again anyway, so I had nothing to lose speaking my mind. “She’s a strong and beautiful woman, and I don’t think Richard is worthy of her. Not the other way around.”

“I think you should return to whichever backwater you come from.” Medusa hissed again, this time with an extra dose of venom.

“My pleasure.” I walked past her towards the glass doors with my head held high. She had sucked all the air out of the room, and I didn’t need to be around her another second.

“Stay away from Juliette,” she shouted.

I didn’t turn around. “No chance,” I replied under my breath. I was going to walk away, but I would see Juliette again. My heart and soul wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chapter Fourteen

Juliette

“You’re a liability. I could put up with my friends flirting with you, but not my daughter. She needs to focus on Richard, and I can’t always be watching her.”

I’d returned to the lobby to retrieve my mail and suddenly wished I’d let another day go by without it. I was startled and horrified to hear my mother’s angry voice directed towards Leo when the lift doors opened.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I whispered through gritted teeth.

I shuffled sideways to hide behind the enormous indoor plant feature to my right. The voyeur in me wanted to listen to their conversation before interrupting them.

I missed Leo’s response but was again horrified by my mother’s words.

“I think you should return to whichever backwater you come from.”

“My pleasure.” His response was absolutely warranted but nonetheless devastating.

“Stay away from Juliette,” she shouted.

Instead of going back to the lift, I bolted for the door to the stairs and took them two at a time. I was on the fifth floor and I barely acknowledged the pain in my muscles as I ascended.

With the searing memory of Leo’s eyes on me, his brief touches, his burning energy pulsing from every pore of his body, I knew I needed to get my head on straight and make some hard decisions about my future. I was done with the crazy, sanity-preserving bullshit. I was done with the guilt that served only to fester in my soul and my withering idea of who I was.

I didn’t think I’d ever felt more alone. I was a twenty-five-year-old woman living the life my mother had planned for me. I walked on eggshells and it had gone on for too long. On paper, I was the perfect daughter she could be proud of, but in reality I was just an illusion. As a young girl, I’d worn pink tutus with wings sown onto sequined tops. She’d dressed me up as fairy princesses, and I’d worn veils, pretending to be a bride. I did ballet, drama and even a few modelling shoots for high-end kids’ clothing companies. In the end-of-year ballet concerts, my mother would meltdown if I wasn’t the little girl in the limelight. I’d feel ashamed and would vow to do better, even though I was more than happy to be a part of the backdrop.

I had never been perfect nor a princess. As an adult, I wanted to get my hands dirty, drive too fast, go to illegal fight nights, wear comfortable clothes, and allow myself to feel the way I felt about Leo whenever I was around him.

The desire to let myself drown under the pressure had always been overwhelming. There was something about Leo that made me want to throw myself off a bridge and then swim upstream like my life depended on it, because in a way, it did. Leo, or maybe even just the idea of Leo, made me want to scale rock faces with my bare hands and then stand at the summit and scream his name. I had a steely bravery within me, screaming to find a way out and into my everyday life—I think I always had. It was stifled by oppressive parents who had told me I was weak, an ingrained guilt laid on me all my life.

A child’s need to please their parents can last a lifetime. Pleasing mine was like being on a treadmill set to a speed I wasn’t quite fit enough for, but the idea of stepping off was daunting. My mother controlled the buttons and knew when to push them. If she sensed me getting ready to slow from a run, she’d increase the speed or the incline. I stepped up every time, thinking it would make her happy. By even noticing, she was paying attention, and I took solace in that. My father wouldn’t notice if I fell off the treadmill and broke my neck. Having no one care about me seemed far worse than the pressure of living someone else’s life.