“What the hell does moved on mean?” I asked in a scared voice. “Are you saying Tristan isn’t coming back?”
“No, no, no. Nothing like that. Just that you need to pretend that you’re with someone else now so Karl can think that Tristan’s dead.”
My jaw fell open as I stared at Daryl, who acted like he’d just said something entirely reasonable. Was he saying Tristan wanted me to pretend to date another man? Had I heard him correctly?
“I can see by your face that I might have said that wrong. It’s just that Tristan doesn’t want you to be in danger and if Karl believes you’ve moved on…”
I didn’t let Daryl finish his sentence before I blew up. “I’m not doing it. I don’t care what you and Tristan think is best. I’m not pretending to be with someone else. It’s just ridiculous! I don’t want to be with anyone else, and even if I agreed with this, where would I find someone willing to playact with me? No way. You’ll have to tell him I’m not going to do it.”
Reaching into his coat pocket again, he mumbled, “I thought you’d say something like that.” He handed me an envelope. “This is from Tristan.”
I looked down at the first letter I’d received from Tristan since he’d left and felt the tears well up in my eyes. The first time he’d bothered to write anything to me and it was to tell me to be with someone else. My stomach clenched at the thought.
“I’ll give you some time to read it and be back in a bit,” Daryl said as he stood to leave.
I didn’t want to read it. All I wanted all these months was to hear from Tristan, and now that I had, it was just to tell me to show the world that I’d moved on. The envelope had nothing written on the outside, and when I turned it over, I saw the flap was just tucked in, not sealed. It was like nothing of him was there.
Slipping the letter out, I unfolded it and began to read, prepared to remain angry and unwilling to go with his plan. Just two sentences in and any hopes of that disappeared.
Dear Nina,
By now, Daryl has told you what I need you to do. I know you don’t want to and God knows I hate the idea of you acting like you care about another man almost as much as I hate being away from you, but I need you to do this for us. I know it won’t be easy, but my biggest fear is that it won’t be hard for you since I’ve left you alone for so long. Please know that if there was any other way, I would have done things differently.
Every letter you wrote me, every text you send means more to me than you’ll ever know. They’re my lifelines—the things that keep me going when I feel like I have nothing of any worth left anymore. I can handle losing everything else but not you. Knowing you’re waiting for me is the one thing that makes me go on.
Nina, it tears me up inside to ask you to pretend you’ve moved on to another. Do this for us and at least I can believe you’ll be safe. Think about me and know that I never stop thinking about you. I promise that someday when all of this is over we’ll get to live that life we both dream of. Never doubt that we can make it through this.
I love you and wish we were together. Your love is what I live for. Until we’re together again, keep me in your heart. What we are is worth fighting for, and trust me, I’m fighting with everything I have.
Love,
Tristan
Just when I was ready to be stubborn, Tristan accomplished what no other man could—instead of being angry at him for what he was asking, I felt sorry for what I had to do. I sensed his heartache in every word he’d written, and it broke my heart.
“Everything okay in here?”
Daryl looked uncomfortable as I wiped a tear away from under my eye. He took his seat again and waited for me to speak, but I could tell he was still feeling uneasy about how emotional Tristan’s letter had made me.
Resigned to doing as Tristan asked, I said quietly, “I’m fine, Daryl. Just tell me what you need me to do.”
“You won’t have to do anything but appear to be with him. Just a few times in public to make the press think you’re on a couple dates. He will have to live here with you, though.”
“Who? Who is this poor soul you’re going to force to pretend to be my new boyfriend?”
“Varo.”
“Varo? My bodyguard? No offense to him, but why would I fall for one of my bodyguards?”
Daryl shrugged and smiled meekly. “You know. You were thrown together after Tristan disappeared and one thing lead to another and…well, we can let the press take it from there.”
I rolled my eyes at such a ridiculous story. “Nice. So I was able to easily forget Tristan Stone and turned to the comforting arms of a man who barely speaks to me and has never once shown even the slightest interest in me. Yeah, that sounds like a real romance.”