Page 17 of Angels Are Falling

Stefan flinched. “Don’t say that,” he said hoarsely. “I love you more than anything. I believe our love can prevail over any trial. A physical relationship with someone else, one we both sign off on, can’t cheapen what we have. Because no matter what, he’ll never have your heart.”

I had gained new insights. Suddenly, there was no place for love in lovemaking. It was okay to fuck another man as long as he didn’t hold the same significance as my husband. At least, that was the idea.

There was nothing but acceptance from Stefan, and I couldn’t gauge his sincerity. The truth was somewhere between wanting this for his family and for himself, too. Because if I agreed, his life would change as well.

When we got accepted into different colleges, everyone suggested we break up. Long-distance relationships were doomed. But we were young and madly in love. There were doubts, sure, and I was worried sick about him meeting someone else. Then he reminded me that our love was so profound that cheating didn’t exist. I held on to his reassurance and married him after graduation, proving the naysayers wrong.

If I agreed to this preposterous scheme, we could no longer boast about our epic love story. We’d be prostitutes who sold our love.

However, if I disagreed, I’d ruin my family’s future. This was the only chance to turn our lives around.

It was perplexing. I had the moral high ground, yet it felt like I was in the wrong. I’d doom everyone to a life of mediocrity if I refused to take one for the team. The money would haunt us whenever something went awry. Every overdue bill, the kids’ doctor’s visits, problems at work—it would always come back to this missed opportunity, and eventually, Stefan would resent me for it.

Would he climb up on the rooftop again and think about ending it?

With horror, it dawned on me that I might not have a choice in accepting Kai’s offer. Now that the possibilities were in Stefan’s head, turning them down would cause more harm than accepting them.

Chapter

Five

KAI

Amelie stormed into the living room of my temporary home—a villa near the water. Her eyes blazed with indignation that came naturally to well-bred women. For the most part, she was humble and composed. But she was raised like a princess, and every so often, her pride shattered her calm.

Like now. Her first act wasn’t verbal. The greeting was her right hand connecting with the left side of my face. “You’re trying to buy me? What the hell?”

“And how are you today, Amelie?” I asked lazily, tapping the cheek she’d slapped. My skin was hot to the touch. Was it masochistic to want her to do it again, just to feel her soft hand?

“I’m frigging fine!” she shouted, sounding anything but. Fury somehow enhanced her beauty.

“Would you like a drink?” I asked politely.

My question made her angrier. “Are you an utterly insane person?”

“Is that a no?”

She breathed fire from her nostrils, and I fought the urge to smile. I never threw around the word adorable, but she might be the exception. “Why are you doing this?” she asked through clenched teeth. “Are all the women in Darster dead for you to pursue a married one?”

“I’ve been forthright about my reasons. Those women aren’t the right choice for me.”

She snorted.

I held my breath when her signature scent—jasmine—permeated the air. She had picked this perfume in her teens, just like she had picked Stefan, and never tried anything else. She was loyal to a fault.

My control was already teetering in her proximity. Anything could push me over the edge, and I couldn’t afford to snap right now. So, I calmly walked to the bar cart to make her a drink. It might also help her take the edge off. Anger was one of her natural attributes. Oddly, so was adaptability. Even when her family went bankrupt and fate ruined her perfect satin world, she brushed it off with, “As long as I have love, I don’t need anything else.”

I was delivering the keynote address at a college affair meant to inspire the next generation when my eyes first landed on Amelie. I was the one onstage, yet she had captured my undivided attention. A solitary figure in the back row, dressed head to toe in blue, with her elbows on her knees as she texted someone. It annoyed me that she wasn’t paying attention to my speech, and she was the only person whose attention I wanted.

For several moments, I forgot I was on a platform in front of hundreds of people. I had no fucking idea why anyone was looking at me with that beauty in the room. Thick, dark hair. Long lashes that reached her cheeks. Almond eyes that might as well be singing the siren song.

It took several tries to force out the rest of my speech. I fumbled, recovered, fumbled again, rushing to get through it so I could speak to the woman in the back row. That was before I found out she was only seventeen, doing her college orientation. I was much too old for her, and waiting for her was the only appropriate thing to do.

It was only after the fact that I found out about her long-distance relationship with her high school sweetheart. Apparently, Amelie wore rose-colored glasses and saw only Stefan through them. Her obliviousness to anyone but him enraged me. Despite meeting me in passing, she didn’t remember me or our interactions. All for a guy who was beneath her.

Amelie was a princess, born into a family like mine, while he bore no significance. Part of me wondered whether she sought a diamond in the rough as part of a rebellious phase. She was slumming it to provoke her absentee father, so he’d give her more attention. It never crossed my mind that she might love him out of loyalty.

Over the years, I sent dozens of women to distract Stefan. They’d run into him at the gym or blatantly hit on him at a bar. But no woman could turn his head. His faithfulness frustrated me. Her happiness infuriated me.