Enzo's POV
I grabbed Lola's wrist and pulled her toward the back of the tent. "Stay quiet," I whispered, my heart pounding. The yelling outside was getting louder. Closer. "Don't move." "They think I kidnapped you!" Lola hissed, her eyes wide with fear. "They're going to" "Shh!" I pressed my finger to my lips, listening hard.
The footsteps stopped right outside the tent. I could hear heavy breathing. Someone muttering. My whole body tightened, ready to fight if I had to.
Then a woman's voice called out, "False warning! Wrong tent! She's in the blue one near the art installation!"
The footsteps ran off in a different direction.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Lola slumped against me, shaking. "That was too close," she whispered.
For a second, just one second, I almost put my arm around her to comfort her. Then I remembered who she was. Whose daughter she was. I stepped back fast. "We need to get out of here," I said, grabbing my phone. "Before they figure out which tent is actually yours." "And go where?" Lola snapped, pulling away from me. "You said we're stuck here for three days!"
She was right. We were stuck at this festival with no way out and a mob looking for her. Looking for us.
This was officially the worst day of my life.
My phone buzzed again. Another call from my helper, Derek. I'd been avoiding him for the past ten minutes, but I knew I couldn't avoid this forever.
I answered. "Derek, I can explain." "Explain?" Derek's voice was high and anxious. "Mr. Marchesi, the board is losing its minds! The pictures are everywhere. CNN, Fox News, TMZ, everyone's running the story. They're saying you were kidnapped by some woman wanting revenge!"
I looked at Lola. She was hugging herself, looking small and scared. Nothing like a kidnapper. "It's not what it looks like," I said. "Then what is it? Because right now, it looks like you spent the night tied up in some woman's tent, and the internet is going crazy. Do you know who she is?"
I closed my eyes. "Yeah. I know who she is." "Well, who? The board wants answers, and they want them now. They've called an emergency meeting for tomorrow morning. If you don't give them a good reason, they're talking about removing you as CEO."
My stomach dropped. "They can't do that." "They can if they think you're involved in something wrong or that you're being blackmailed. Mr. Marchesi, you need to come back to Vegas right now and fix this." "There's a dust storm. No one can leave the event for three days."
Derek was silent for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was cold. "Then you'd better find a way to handle this from there. Because if you don't, you won't have a company to come back to."
He hung up.
I stood there, looking at my phone, feeling my whole world crumbling around me.
I'd spent fifteen years building my casino business from nothing. Fifteen years of eighteen-hour days, sacrificing everything, showing to everyone that I wasn't like my father that I wouldn't throw it all away as he did.
And now it was all going apart because of one night I couldn't even remember. "That sounded bad," Lola said quietly.
I laughed, but there was no fun in it. "Bad? My board thinks I'm either a victim of kidnapping or involved in some kind of crime. Either way, they want me gone." "What are you going to do?"
I looked at her really looked at her for the first time. She was younger than I expected. Pretty, even with the smudged makeup and messy hair. And scared.
Just like I was. "I don't know," I admitted. "What are you going to do? That crowd outside thinks you're a criminal." "I don't know either." Her voice cracked a little. "This is crazy. Yesterday, my biggest problem was paying rent. Now I'm reportedly a kidnapper married to a billionaire I can't stand." "The feeling is mutual," I said immediately.
But was it?
Fragments from last night kept flashing through my mind. Laughing with someone at a bar. Feeling free for the first time in years. Dancing under the stars. A woman with a beautiful smile who actually seemed interested in me not my money, just me.
That woman was Lola. "We need to figure out what happened," I said, pushing myself to focus. "Piece together the night. Maybe if we understand how we got here, we can fix it." "How do you fix a marriage?" Lola asked, pointing at the certificate still lying on the ground. "We get an annulment. Say we were too drunk to agree. It shouldn't be that hard." "Unless someone doesn't want us to fix it," Lola said slowly. She picked up her phone and showed me the email again. "Someone lied to me. Pretended to be my client to get me here. Why would someone do that?"
A cold feeling crept up my spine. "And someone took that picture of us and sent it to every news outlet in the country. Within hours of us waking up."
We stared at each other as the truth sank in. "Someone planned this," I said. "This whole thing was a setup." "But who? And why?"
Before I could answer, my phone buzzed with a text message. From a number I didn't recognize.
Enjoying your trip, darling? You should've picked me instead. - V V. Vanessa.
My ex-fiancée. The woman I'd broken up with three months ago, when I found she was only with me for my money. "No," I whispered. "She wouldn't. She couldn't." "Who wouldn't?" Lola asked, trying to see my phone.
I turned it toward her, and she read the message. Her face went pale. "Your ex-fiancée did this? Why? What does she have against me?" "I don't know. I didn't even think she knew who you were." But even as I said it, memories were coming back. Vanessa is asking about my business deals. Which companies did I buy? Actively interested in my work background.
Had she known about Lola's family? About what I'd done to them?
My phone rang. It was Vanessa calling. "Don't answer it," Lola said quickly.
But I was already hitting accept. I needed to know. "Hello, Enzo," Vanessa's voice was sweet as poison. "I see you've met your wife. Isn't she lovely?" "What did you do?" I demanded. "Me? I didn't do anything. You're the one who got drunk and married a strange girl at Burning Man. I just... helped the news find out about it. You're welcome." "Why, Vanessa? What do you want?"
She laughed. It made my skin crawl. "I want you to remember that you made a mistake when you left me. I want everyone to see that the great Enzo Marchesi isn't so perfect. And I want to watch your company fall apart when your board learns you're married to the daughter of a man whose business you destroyed." "You're insane." "No, darling. I'm just really, really angry." Her voice turned hard. "You threw me away like I was nothing. Now you get to feel what that's like. Enjoy your marriage, Enzo. I'm sure it will last forever."
She hung up.
I stood there, my hand shaking, trying to understand what just happened.
Vanessa had set this whole thing up. Somehow, she'd gotten Lola here, gotten us together, gotten us married, and then made sure the whole world found out about it in the worst possible way. "What did she say?" Lola asked.
Before I could answer, Lola's phone rang. She looked at the screen, and her face went even paler. "It's my dad," she whispered. "He never calls me unless something's really wrong."
She answered, and I watched as she listened to whatever her father was saying. Tears started running down her face. "Dad, I can explain. It's not Dad, please listen. I didn't." Her voice broke. "Dad, don't say that. Please."
She pulled the phone away from her ear. I could hear her father yelling even from where I stood. "He hung up on me," Lola said, looking at her phone like she couldn't believe it. "He saw the news. He thinks I married you on purpose. For money. He said," She swallowed hard. "He said I'm dead to him."
A tear rolled down her face, and something in my chest twisted.
This was my fault. All of it.
I'd bought her father's business five years ago without a second thought. I'd ruined their family. And now, because of my ex-fiancée's revenge plan, I've ruined Lola's life even more. "Lola, I'm sorry. I didn't know," "Don't," she said, wiping her eyes roughly. "Don't apologize. You don't get to apologize for ruining my life twice."
She was right. Sorry, didn't fix anything.
My phone buzzed with another text. This time from my head of security.
Boss, you need to see this. Someone leaked your secret files to the press. They know about the Marlowe purchase. They're connecting the dots.
My blood ran cold.
If the press found out that I'd bought out Lola's father's business, they'd think this whole thing was even worse. They'd say I married her out of guilt, or that she married me for payback, or worse, that we planned this together as some kind of publicity stunt.
Either way, my company was finished. "We need to make a statement," I said, my mind running. "Tell the truth. Explain what happened." "What truth?" Lola asked angrily. "We don't even know what happened. We just know we're married, we hate each other, and your crazy ex-girlfriend set us up."
She was right again.
Another text came through. From Derek.
The board meeting is happening in one hour. Not tomorrow, NOW. They're doing an emergency conference call. They want you to press charges against Lola Marlowe for theft, or they're voting you out. You have sixty minutes to decide.
I looked at Lola. At this woman who'd already lost so much because of me.
If I pushed charges, she'd go to jail. Her life would be destroyed.
If I didn't, I'd lose everything I'd built. My company. My image. My entire life's work. "Enzo?" Lola said, seeing something in my face. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Before I could answer, we heard screaming again outside.
But this time, it wasn't a mob looking for Lola.
It was fair security. "Enzo Marchesi! This is festival protection! We need to speak with you about a theft report! Come out with your hands up!"
Lola grabbed my arm, her fingers digging in. "They're going to arrest me." "No," I said. "They're not." "How are you going to stop them?"
That was the question, wasn't it?
I had fifty-nine minutes to decide whether to destroy Lola's life or my own.
And I had absolutely no idea which choice would be worse. "Mr. Marchesi!" The security guard pounded on the tent pole. "We need to talk to you right now! If you don't come out, we're coming in!"
I looked at Lola one more time. At the fear in her eyes. The same fear I'd seen in her father's eyes five years ago when I told him I was buying his business.
History was repeating itself.
And this time, I had the power to change it.
I just didn't know if I was strong enough to make the right choice. "I'm coming out," I called to the security guards. Then, quietly to Lola, "Stay here. Don't come out. No matter what happens." "What are you going to do?" she whispered.
I didn't answer.
Because I honestly didn't know.