David rolled his eyes. ‘Of course it was. I wouldn’t have proposed if you weren’t beautiful, and good company—in bed and out.’
‘Or if you weren’t in love with me,’ Zoey pressed, but David didn’t even dignify that one with an answer. Zoey’s guilt started ebbing away, like water down a storm drain.
‘And, to be honest, the fact that you were a challenge—that other people said you wouldn’t go through with it—that only made me keener.’
Zoey tried to get her head around all the new information swirling around her brain. Tried to reconcile the man in front of her with the one she’d said yes to when he got down on one knee.
It seemed impossible.
‘So what you’re saying is that you wanted me to marry you, even if it would make me unhappy, just so you could do a business deal, show me off and brag about bagging the runaway bride?’
‘What else do you think marriage is, Zoey?’ David asked, sounding astonished at her naivety. ‘It’s deals and trophies. Marriage is the ultimate status symbol. You have to marry someone who enhances your own position.’ He waved a hand in her direction. ‘You might not have much social standing or money yourself, and your job barely qualifies as a career, but your parents’ company makes up for that. Add in the fact that you’re beautiful and charming, and suddenly you’re of interest to people. But most of all you were a challenge. If I married you, people would know that I must have something other men didn’t.’
Zoey sank back against the door as if she’d been punched in the stomach. ‘That was why you wanted to marry me?’
‘Of course it was.’ David’s mouth twisted into a cruel, mocking smile. ‘Oh, Zoey. You didn’t really think it was love, did you? Nobody believes in that these days.’
I do, Zoey thought.
She knew that love was real—she’d seen it. And maybe she hadn’t been lucky enough to find it for herself yet, but that didn’t mean she had to settle for anything less.
And definitely not being a sign of manliness or a business deal for a guy like David.
Twisting her engagement ring off her right ring finger, Zoey held it out to David, who snatched it from her.
‘I’m sorry this didn’t work out,’ she said softly. ‘I’ll pack up my stuff and get out of your way.’
‘You do that. I’ll stay on here for the next couple of weeks, like we planned. Give you time to get out of the London flat too.’
Pushing past her, David left the room and Zoey was alone for the first time since the desert island.
She took advantage of the solitude to crumple to the floor and sob.
CHAPTER EIGHT
ZOEY LET HERSELF cry until the tears stung her sore eyes and her chest hurt from wrenching sobs. If Grace had been there, she knew her best friend would have rubbed her back, handed her tissues, whispered encouragement and told her to let it all out.
So she did.
And then, when it was all out there, a mess of a life in tears and snot and misery, she picked herself up, washed her face and forced herself to face reality.
Grace wasn’t there any longer to help her when she screwed up. To ask the important, searching questions that always led Zoey to her best path forward. Of course, if Grace had been there, Zoey wouldn’t be in half the mess she was. Grace would have spotted what David was truly after long before Zoey had.
And if Grace was alive there was no way she’d have slept with Ash in the first place.
Still. Without her best friend on hand, Zoey would just have to do the asking and the answering.
‘What do I want to happen next?’ she asked herself aloud. ‘I want... I want to go home. That’s easy.’ Except she didn’t have a home any more. She’d been living in David’s flat for months. So, back to her parents’ house it was.
If they’d still have her.
‘Worst case scenario, I find a hotel or something for a few nights until I can find somewhere—anywhere—to rent.’ She’d picked herself up from nothing before, she could do it again. As soon as she was back in the right country, anyway.
‘Okay, next question. What do I need to do to make that happen?’ She could ask Ash to help her change her plane ticket home for a flight today. He could probably help her with a transfer off the island and to the airport on the mainland too, given his connections at the hotel and in the travel industry generally.