The Wrong Fiancée: A Billionaire Second Chance Romance (Marriage by Contract Book 3)
The Wrong Fiancée: Chapter 17

My suitcase was packed. I was leaving for a few weeks. I’d be in Hong Kong and Paris, maybe even swing by San Francisco.

It had been two weeks since the party—the last time I’d seen Elika.

She wasn’t cleaning rooms anymore. She was still working in the restaurants but as a hostess and not a server. It was part of the management training program she was now enrolled in. She was also helping to set up the resort’s first art exhibition—which Dante hoped would become a new revenue source for his high-end hotels and resorts.

Archer Arts & Antiquities was supplying the art and the connections with local artists. I was not involved, as this was being managed by someone from our US office—but I’d kept tabs on how Elika was doing. According to my source, she was knowledgeable and was getting along very well with everyone on the team. The words ‘hardworking,’ ‘smart,’ and ‘sweetheart’ had been used to describe her.

Dante and I were flying out together on a chartered plane, first to Rome, where I was going to spend some days authenticating art Archer Arts & Antiquities was planning to acquire before I went to my office in Hong Kong.

‘All okay?’ Felicity asked, wrapping her arms around my waist, her cheek resting against my back.

I put my hands on hers and peeled them away from me. I had been waiting until the last minute to tell her—because I didn’t want to be here when the drama began as I knew it would.

I turned around to face her.

‘Sit.’ I led her to one of the outdoor sofas on the lanai.

She looked up at me in a green sundress, as beautiful as always. But since we’d come to Kauai, I’d stopped focusing on the surface and started seeing deeper—discovering a side of Felicity I didn’t like much.

I had talked to my parents and told them what I was doing and they were in wholehearted agreement. Sure, they liked Felicity, but they were also appalled with how the Thatchers seem to be small and petty people. It was just gauche, as Mom put it, to go after a relative because they were lower in socioeconomic status.

I crouched in front of Felicity and took her hands in mine, hating that I had to hurt her. But if we got married, it would be a disaster—an epic one. We weren’t suited for each other. I wanted to be with a woman who was smart, intelligent, and poised, yes—but also someone who had compassion and empathy. Someone who cared about people, who would care for me and my family—not because of my last name, but because that was who she was. I needed a woman who would get along with my sisters-in-law, Emilia and Elsa. I could see now that woman wasn’t Felicity. She’d invariably compete with them—because that was her nature. What had appealed to me in a work setting didn’t in a personal one. Maybe that made me a hypocrite, but I didn’t want to marry someone because they were professionally capable.

Damian had warned me there would be fallout since we were in some art acquisition negotiations that Sam was helping us with and had wondered if I could put the breakup on hold. Emilia had lost her shit with him, and Damian had protested that it was a mere suggestion. I knew then I was doing the right thing. Felicity would not be the one telling someone to put their personal lives ahead of their professional ones—to put what was true to them in front of profit.

‘What?’ she asked, a broad smile on her face. ‘You want me to come with you? You know I’d love to.’

She’d been asking to join me and I kept putting her off, saying I’d be busy, and reminding her that she had a lot of work to do as well. All bullshit. Even before I had consciously made the decision to end the engagement, in my heart, I knew it was coming, maybe from the start, even before I met Elika. Seeing her again had only solidified the belief that I’d made a hasty mistake. I wanted what my brothers had—and I had been enamored with the outward shell of Felicity.

‘I can’t marry you, Fee.’ Pain marred her face, but I knew this was the right thing to do for both of us. ‘I’m sorry. But being here with you has made me realize that I’m not suited for you.’

She stared at me, her eyes wide. ‘What?’

I let go of her hands and rose. I put some distance between us and leaned against the railing of the lanai. ‘I don’t think we’re right for each other.’

‘What?’ she repeated.

She was in shock, though the fact that I hadn’t touched her since the morning Elika walked in on us having sex should’ve been a clear sign things weren’t going the way they should. The fact that I’d stopped trying to be patient with her mother should’ve been another clue. And all the constant fighting—because she wanted more of my attention, different attention, or something else entirely—should’ve been a huge red flag. It took me a while to catch on to what was happening, but eventually, I did.

‘I’m sorry, Fee. I can’t marry you. I thought I loved you, and I do care about you, but not enough to spend my life with you.’

The words were harsh, I knew that, but I had to be clear with her that this was indeed over, that I didn’t want this, and there was no changing my mind.

She came up to me, her eyes filled with tears. She put a hand on my chest. ‘You just have cold feet, Dean. Is it because I made that announcement about a wedding date? We…we don’t have to marry in the spring. I was just…you know…we can⁠—’

I took her hand in mine and held it away from me. ‘It’s not that, Fee. I rushed the engagement. I’m sorry.’

She flinched and pushed me. ‘What the fuck does that mean?’

I took a step away from her. ‘I got to know you here in the past few weeks and I can see that we’re not a good fit.’

I knew she wouldn’t make it easy, wouldn’t say, ‘Hey, this is great, I was thinking the same thing.’

She had been very excited about dating an Archer and being engaged to one. Now that I knew her better, I had a feeling that it wouldn’t have mattered who I was. It was my last name, my connection with the art world, and my wealth that made me attractive to Felicity.

‘Are you sleeping with someone else? Is that why you haven’t touched me in weeks?’ she demanded. ‘Have you been cheating on me?’ The last question was a scream.

‘No. No. And, no.’

‘What?’

‘No, I haven’t been sleeping with someone else. That is not why we haven’t had sex in weeks. And, no, I’m not cheating on you.’

But wasn’t I already guilty when another woman consumed my thoughts?

I had tried to push Elika out of my mind, but I couldn’t. In the past week, I’d come to realize that I wasn’t just fascinated with her—I was half in love with her, had been when I left her in Honolulu, and I was falling the rest of the way now that I’d seen her again. Her beauty, her kindness, her patience, her elegance…fuck, everything about her spoke to me.

I didn’t know if I had a chance with Elika, but if I wanted one, and I did want to explore what we could be, I needed to get my life straightened out.

‘How can you do this to me?’

I hated this. I hated myself right now. This was my fault. I had rushed us into an engagement.

‘I’m so sorry, Fee.’

She took a step toward me. ‘Sorry? I’m going to make you sorry for doing this.’

I didn’t like being threatened, but I figured she had a right. I was upending her life, breaking my promises. If she wanted to throw a few punches, I had to take them, too.

‘After all that I’ve done?’ she sneered. ‘I helped you with work. I stepped in whenever you needed me. I was there for you. I even made nice with your family, which is something you didn’t do with mine.’

‘Felicity, tell me you can’t see that your mother is vindictive and⁠—’

‘What is it with all of you defending that bitch?’ She flung her arms. ‘Dante threatened us. He actually told us that if my mother or I treated Elika poorly, he’d ask us to vacate our bungalows. Us.’

‘And you can’t see his point?’

‘We are wealthy, influential guests. Who the fuck is she?’

‘A valued employee.’

‘Who’s probably fucking Dante.’ The Felicity I thought I knew, the one with poise, was gone. This woman in front of me was more angry than distraught—but then emotions during a time so fraught couldn’t be curated.

‘Does it matter what she’s doing? This is not about Elika. It’s you yelling at the staff, it’s making unreasonable demands, it’s your mother going out of her way to make someone’s life miserable. Can’t you see how wrong all of it is?’

My phone beeped in my pocket and I ignored it, knowing it was probably Dante, letting me know that the exhibition was about to start.

‘Oh, don’t be such a sanctimonious asshole,’ she flung back at me. ‘You come from a wealthier family, and I’ve seen how your mother treats people.’

‘When have you seen my mother treat someone the way your mother does, Elika?’ I demanded.

She snorted. ‘You know, I thought you’re the Archers, oh so fancy. Then I meet your brothers, and they’re exactly the way I thought they’d be. But their wives? God! I haven’t met a woman that dumb in my life. Is that what you want?’

‘You’re confusing education with intelligence.’ I kept my cool, but my blood was on a slow boil. She went after my mother, which I was fine with, but Emilia and Elsa? Fuck no! No one talked about those women in front of me with disrespect. ‘And the way you’re behaving right now is exactly why we won’t work out. You lash out and insult people. I can’t spend my life with someone who’s that weak.’

I should’ve expected it, but I hadn’t, so I couldn’t defend myself when she slapped me.

‘I’m not weak,’ she screeched.

She was about to hit me again, but I gently held her wrists away from me. ‘No violence, Fee. That’s not how I roll.’

Who the fuck was this woman? And had I just dodged the ugliest bullet?

She wrestled with me. ‘You’re hurting me,’ she lied.

‘I’m barely touching you. I know the difference between defending myself and hurting someone. Cut it out.’

I set her down on the sofa. She was vibrating with anger. Her face was coiled with rage, and all that beauty that I had admired wasn’t there—what was left was spite, a rot of the soul that I hadn’t seen before. She was so much like Ginny, who thought it was a zero-sum game—that if someone else was successful, it took something away from them.

‘I’m going to ruin that deal your brother has going on in Sydney,’ she barked.

‘Knock yourself out.’

‘I’m going to blackball Archer Arts & Antiquities,’ she threatened venomously.

I grinned. ‘Mess with my family at your own risk, Felicity. I’m the good guy here. But piss off Damian or Duncan, and Thatcher Consulting will be shutting its doors for good. And trust me, they’ll make sure all that money you think gives you the right to be such a raging bitch? Gone. Every last cent.’

She stood up. ‘Watch me.‘

‘I’m sorry how this turned out,’ I told her sincerely.

‘Oh, Dean Archer, you’re going to be sorry for how you treated me. No one, but no one gets away with insulting me.’

She stormed out of my bungalow.

My phone began to ring. I answered it.

‘You coming or what?’ Dante wanted to know.

‘Yeah. I had the talk with Felicity.’

‘How did it go?’

‘Worse than I thought it would be—but her behavior helped me feel better about my decision.’

‘You better come down here because your girl is something else. She just gave a masterclass on how to present art, and she’s been doing this for merely two weeks.’

I ended the call and, for the first time since getting engaged to Felicity, I felt a load lift off me. Deep down, I had always known I was making a mistake—that Fee was the wrong fiancée for me. My mind had sensed it long before I admitted it, and my heart, without me even realizing it, had been heavy. But now, there was a lightness.

I was smiling when I left my room—my first genuine smile in days.