Page 44 of The Marriage Playbook

We look forward very much to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Cara Bailey.

She sat back and looked at the screen, thinking over what she had written. Wondering whether this was a good idea or not.

A low dread took root in the pit of her stomach as she became aware of what the repercussions would be.

There was no way to send this email without ruining herself.

She could rewrite it, of course, so that the entire thing didn’t appear to be a huge bungle on her part. She could make it seem as though the arranged marriage had been Liam’s own idea. He couldn’t stop her from doing that. It would be her word against his, and no one would think she was the one lying about that. She’d have no reason to lie, when she could just as easily have never sent this email at all.

But if she was going to send it, she wanted it to have the best possible chance of succeeding. She wanted to make a difference here, to convince the Lions that Liam was someone they wanted.

The only way she could think of to do that was to say the whole thing had been her fault.

Once that news was out there, no one would ever want to hire her as a publicist again. Alastair would fire her, certainly. She could all but see the promotion she’d hoped for going up in smoke right before her eyes.

But Liam will have his team. This will work.

She quickly hit send on the email before she could think better of it.

There was an electronic whooshing noise as it rushed off, out into the world, carrying her hopes of being a publicist with it. She’d never recover from this moment. It left her feeling empty and detached, vaguely horrified. She had given up everything for Liam. Everything, to try to salvage the reputation of a man who wouldn’t even speak to her.

Because I care for him. Truly. Because I want to make this right for him somehow, even though I have no idea whether it’s going to work. I believe it will, but I might be wrong.

I still have to do all I can.

Her heart aching, she got up and went to the kitchen, hoping against hope that she would run into him there.

The last few days had all been the same. She had mustered up the courage to go out into the common areas of the house, filled with an anxious desire to see Liam, certain that if their paths crossed she would be able to set things right.

Today she felt more sure of it than ever. All she needed was to see him, and to tell him that she had reached out to the Lions. He would understand, then, that the reason she had rushed into publicity mode the moment she’d gotten the call from Alastair was that she cared for him and wanted him to be happy. He’d realize she was doing all this for his sake.

Not that I could tell him I set myself up to get fired over it. He would feel too guilty, she thought. She didn’t want that. She wanted him to be able to enjoy his place on the team, assuming he got it.

She’d never let him know what she was sure it was going to cost.

It turned out to be a moot point—the kitchen was empty. Feeling drained of hope, she made her way to his expensive coffee machine. She’d learned to use it her first day here, and it was one of the few appliances she felt comfortable taking advantage of. Even keeping food in the refrigerator for more than a day still felt like overstepping, encroaching on his territory. But she had stopped feeling that way about the coffee. She was entitled to that, given everything she was doing.

Now, more than ever, that seemed true.

She took the cup to the table once it was ready and sat there in the silence, hardly able to believe everything had happened so quickly. They had fallen into their relationship with each other, and then, just as quickly, back out of it. Sitting here now, it almost felt like something she had imagined. Like it had never been real.

It was a fantasy. It was a dream. This whole marriage was always temporary, always just for show. I let myself forget that fact for a short window of time, but it won’t happen again. From now on, I will be sure to keep things professional at all times, because when you forget to be professional you run the risk of getting hurt.

This marriage had hurt her more than she ever would have believed possible.

She would do all she could to help Liam, just as she had pledged to from the start—and then she was going to pull away. She would cut ties with him, and things would be over between the two of them.

That was the only sensible way to move forward now.

CHAPTER 22

LIAM

Liam had taken to coming in through the back door when he returned home at the end of the day.