“Give me five minutes. That’s all I’m asking. Five minutes.”
Right now she wasn’t sure she was going to make it through five seconds.
“I don’t understand what you want me to look at. I don’t understand what this has to do with what just happened.”
“What happened was that I told you I love you, and you freaked out. I know you’re scared of love—”
“I’m scared of hurting people. And now I’ve hurt you, or if I haven’t already I will soon! And you’re the last person in the world I’d ever want to hurt—”
His response was to walk to her laptop and tap a few keys. “Read this. Humor me. You owe me that much.” He pulled out the chair behind her desk and nudged her into it, then sat on the desk beside her. “You thought you’d damaged his heart. Broken it. Has it ever occurred to you that it was his ego you damaged rather than his heart?”
Why was he raking all this up now? They’d already talked about it. She’d told him everything.
“Losing me almost killed him.”
“Those were his words, yes? I want you to forget what he said, and look at the facts. This was a guy who loved the limelight and attention. He was king of the show until you came along. It was you who sent the ratings rocketing.”
“The public liked our relationship.”
“They liked you. And your relationship was part of that. And he knew it, which is why h
e pursued you.”
“You’re suggesting he was with me because it increased the ratings? That he was raising his own profile?”
“The evidence would suggest so.” He paused, obviously choosing his words carefully. “You thought he didn’t know the proposal was being filmed but he knew, Molly.”
“No. He never would have agreed to it. He never would have taken that risk.”
“He was wearing a microphone.”
“No!” Her instinctive denial died on her lips as she saw the look on his face. “You— What makes you think that?”
“I have a friend in the business. He checked the sound quality. Rupert was definitely wearing a lapel microphone. If you look closely, you can see the wire.”
A wire? She would have noticed. Wouldn’t she? On the other hand, she’d been panicking too much to notice anything. Maybe he’d been counting on that.
“But why would he propose if he wasn’t in love with me? I might have said yes.”
“He knew you wouldn’t say yes. He knew you didn’t love him.”
“You’re saying he proposed, knowing I’d turn him down? But that would have meant he was setting himself up for public humiliation. What guy would ever do that? What did he possibly hope to gain?”
“He gained public sympathy, a massive boost in his popularity and he got you removed from the show, although I suspect that was an added bonus rather than part of the original plan.”
It was too much to take in. Too far apart from everything she’d believed for so long.
“I broke his heart. Just as I broke the hearts of all the guys I dated before him, even though I tried really hard not to.”
“I can’t comment on the guys before, but I can comment on Rupert. Take a look at this.” He tilted the laptop screen toward her. “Take a look at what the man whose life you supposedly ruined is doing now.”
She stared at the screen. “I— He’s married? To Laura Lyle. She was a researcher on the program when I was there. How long have they been married?”
“Almost three years.”
“Three—” Even in her confusion she could still do basic math. “So he must have started dating her almost immediately after we broke up.”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think he was brokenhearted for long. And now that’s enough.” He closed the laptop. “You didn’t damage his heart, honey. You damaged his ego. He couldn’t handle the fact that you were more popular. He staged the whole thing as a publicity stunt to boost his career.”