Chip didn’t look dissuaded. He was well versed in debate, and she could tell that he wasn’t going to give up until he won. “It wasn’t so long ago that I was everything you wanted, Cecelia. You were so anxious to plan our wedding and start our life together. What about the children we were going to have? The future we planned? Are you willing to just throw all that away?”
“You threw it away, Chip, not me. And yes, I am willing to walk away from what you’ve offered me. I have found something infinitely better.”
Chip chuckled bitterly. “You mean Deacon? Seriously? I’m offering you the chance to be the first lady of the United States, Cecelia. I’m going all the way to the White House one day, and I want to take you with me.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the engagement ring she’d returned the afternoon they broke up. He held it up like a gaudy offering to the diamond gods. “You’re going to turn this down and walk away from the amazing life that we have ahead of us because you’ve got feelings for that loser?”
“As a matter of fact I am, Chip. Your five minutes are up.” Cecelia brushed past him and the engagement ring she’d once worn and pushed into the crowd, hoping he didn’t follow her. How she ever could’ve agreed to marry a man like that was beyond her. What was she thinking? She knew. It was what her parents wanted for her. She was tired of that. Now she wanted what she wanted for herself, whether they liked it or not.
She was about to start a new phase in her life, and she wanted to start it with Deacon. If she could find him. Finally, she spotted Shane and went up to him, hoping he could help her track Deacon down.
Shane spotted her and smiled in a polite, yet oddly cold fashion. “Good evening, Cecelia.”
“Evening, Shane. Have you seen Deacon anywhere? I’ve been looking for him all night, and I haven’t managed to find him.”
Shane nodded. “Deacon had to leave, but he told me to tell you congratulations on your engagement.”
Cecelia’s blood went ice-cold in her veins. “What engagement?” she asked.
“You and Chip. Both he and your parents have been telling everybody at the party that you two have reconciled and the wedding is back on. It’s all anyone can talk about tonight. Quite a shrewd tactic to suppress the other scandal, I have to say.”
Her jaw dropped. She couldn’t even believe what she was hearing. Chip was such an arrogant bastard that he’d gone around announcing their engagement before he’d even talked to her about it. How dare he tell people that they got back together without even consulting her! “I can’t believe this,” she said. And then she realized the depth of what this meant.
Deacon thought that she had taken Chip back. How could he believe such a thing? He hadn’t even asked her if it were true. No wonder he had left the party early. She dropped her head into her hands and groaned.
“What’s the matter?” Shane asked.
She couldn’t even answer him. She didn’t want to waste another minute talking to him when she could be tracking down Deacon and clearing up this whole mess. She turned and ran as fast as she could, weaving through the crowd to find the nearest exit and get to her car.
Cecelia was almost out of the ballroom when she heard her father’s sharp, demanding voice say her name. She stopped and turned, seeing her parents standing a few feet away with a typically disappointed expression on their faces. “I can’t talk right now, Dad.”
“You can and you will, young lady. Chip tells us that you turned your nose up at his apology and proposal. What are you thinking? Do you know how hard we had to work to stay in the Ashfords’ good graces after all this blew up? After Maverick released your information, you were nowhere to be found. Your mother and I had to deal with the backlash.”
“Please reconsider, dear,” her mother said in a less authoritative tone. “I really do think Chip is a good choice for you. He has so much potential, and he’s from such a good family. We should be thankful that they’re willing to reconsider the engagement after the truth about your lineage came to light. What are they going to think when Chip tells them that you’ve rejected him for the son of a mechanic?”
Cecelia’s hands curled into fists at her side. If she’d gotten nothing else from her time in Cannes, it was that she wasn’t going to let her life be dictated by her parents anymore. “Honestly, I really don’t care what they think of me. I don’t want anything to do with them, much less become one of them. I am not marrying Chip Ashford. If he hasn’t ruined it for me tonight, I intend to marry Deacon Chase.”
Both her parents looked at her with an expression of shock and dismay, but she didn’t care. She cut her father off before he could start telling her why she was wrong. “I am tired of working so hard to meet your approval. If you truly love me, you will love and accept me for who I am, not for who you want me to be, and certainly not for whom I do or do not marry. If you can’t agree to that, then I don’t want you in my life any longer.”
She didn’t wait for their response. Right now, all that mattered was finding Deacon. Outside the ballroom, Cecelia slipped out of her high heels and ran through the back door of the hotel with them clutched in her hand.
She scanned the parking lot, but she didn’t see his Corvette anywhere now. She rushed over to her own car and headed straight for his place. When she pulled up the gravel driveway, she was disappointed to find his car wasn’t there, either, and all the lights were out. He’d told Shane he was leaving. Cecelia thought he had meant he was leaving the party, but now she had a sick ache in her stomach that made her think that perhaps he meant he was leaving Royal altogether.
She whipped her car back out onto the highway and rushed to the small executive airport where he had chartered the private jet to take them to France. If he was really, truly leaving, his car would be there.
At the airport, she found only more disappointment. The airport was mostly empty, with only one other car in the parking lot, and it wasn’t Deacon’s. She put her car in Park and sat there, unsure of what to do next. She didn’t know where else to look for him.
Frustrated, she leaned back into her seat and let her tears flow freely down her cheeks. This was not the way she envisioned tonight going. Tonight was supposed to be happy. She was supposed to be sharing the most amazing and exciting news with the man she loved, and instead she was sitting in an empty parking lot alone, feeling as though everything she had ever wanted in life was slipping through her fingers.
Her whole life, all she ever wanted was her own family. Blood, love and a bond that nothing could split apart. Today, when she’d gotten home from the drugstore, she had looked at the two lines on the pregnancy test and thought that her dream was finally coming true. She had rushed to The Bellamy, anxious to share the good news with Deacon, only to have her dream intercepted by her delusional, lying ex.
And now, if she didn’t find a way to clear things up with Deacon, she was going to find herself in a position she never expected: a single mother.
Eleven
Deacon was nowhere to be found.
It’d been three days since the grand opening of The Bellamy, and no one, not even Shane, had seen him. Or at least that’s what he’d said. He wasn’t likely to roll on his friend if his friend didn’t want to be found. Deacon hadn’t shown up at the hotel offices to work. His laptop was missing from his docking station. He hadn’t been seen at his house. It was like he had simply vanished off the face of the earth.
Cecelia had tried contacting him on his cell phone, but he wasn’t responding to her calls or texts. She didn’t even think his phone was turned on because it immediately rolled to voice mail. That or he’d blocked her. She supposed that if she dropped the news on him in a text, he would respond. However, it just seemed wrong to tell a man he’s going to be a father that way.