Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
In our little bubble, I was able to truly believe there was a place for me in Adam’s life. But seeing him with Camille, hearing the name of her mother, his late wife, and seeing the mix of sadness and affection on his face, it’s all too clear that I’m just a blip. And an intruder. I suddenly feel so temporary. There is no space for me here, not when Adam’s life is already a fully formed world. Friends, businesses, employees, assistants, family, homes everywhere. A daughter, for god’s sake. He’s so established. How or where can I fit into that?
It hits so hard, so devastatingly, that I feel like I’m going to be sick. I need to breathe. I can’t truly be with a billionaire. I’m just…Elowen. Temporary translator. Not even a full-time employee.
I need some way to just think this through. It’s impossible here in what now feels like a pressure cooker. I am pissed at myself for how I feel and how I am reacting. On the one hand, I feel childish, but at the same time I think I have this in perfect perspective. Surprisingly, I feel like I’m being mature.
Pulling myself away responsibly from a two-day hot fling with a billionaire in a high-class Swiss ski resort.
From this viewpoint, it looks too good to be true. And I’m well aware of the saying: if it looks too good to be true, yep, I’m not going there. That can only end in tears, recriminations, and, yup, heartbreak all round. I need to thank Camille, or her presence at least, for revealing this clarity for me.
I don’t want this ridiculous, money-soaked life. All I want is Adam. How is it possible to feel attached yet detached at the same time?
But I can’t have him. He’s not mine. He never was.
I slow, falling back a step, and I can feel Adam’s gaze on me. Maybe he can sense that something is wrong, but there’s no way for him to know I’m drowning.
Brunch is the most agonizing experience of my life. With each mention of a history I have no knowledge of, of a life I’m a stranger to, another piece of my armor clicks back into place.
When we return to the suite, Adam turns on me instantly. "What's wrong?”
"I'm just tired," I lie. I’m itching to run away. Each moment with Adam now just shatters my heart more.
Adam doesn’t believe me, and he tells me as such when I insist on going back to my own suite to rest, but he still lets me go. Little does he know I’m never coming back to his suite…or his arms.
Ever.
For the remaining days of the summit, I become a ghost. I am the perfect translator, efficient, professional, but detached. I stand beside him in meetings, I attend the dinners, and I play the part of the fake fiancée with a stiff smile on my face.
Adam tries. God, he tries. He looks at me with raw adoration, and I meet it with a polite, blank stare. He whispers private jokes meant only for me, and I respond with a faint, impersonal smile. He tries to pull me back into the bubble we created, but I've already popped it from the inside. The distance devastates me, but it's the only way I know how to survive this. I take frequent trips to the restroom, lock myself away, and sob. Then fix my face and return to fulfill my fake fiancée, robotic translator role. It crosses my mind that my plight fits perfectly for the time I live in, where even my translation skills are under threat from new AI models.
On our final night, he corners me on a freezing balcony where I’ve escaped to catch my breath, the lights of the valley glittering below us.
"Elowen, talk to me," he demands. "What happened? What did I do wrong?"
"Nothing, Adam. It’s just…done. We're leaving tomorrow. We're going back to the real world."
"This can be the real world," he insists, his hands gripping my arms, "Us. This can be our real world."
Tears burn behind my eyes as I extricate myself from his grasp.
“Let's just stick to the plan. Break up amicably and go back to our lives.”
Adam laughs in cruel disbelief, but he finally lets me go.
“You created this fiction, Adam. You are more than smart enough to explain the ending.”
As I rush away, I see him trying to piece together the Elowen he rescued off the mountain with the Elowen running away from him now, but he can't.
I've locked that heartsick woman up and thrown away the key.
8
ADAM
After we'd slept together, I’d booked Elowen on my private flight back to the States instead of her original commercial flight. That decision has become a huge fucking mistake.
She just stares out at the endless expanse of clouds, a universe away from the woman who had shattered in my arms, laughed with me, made me fall fucking in love with her before going cold as ice.