Billionaire's Perfect Revenge [18+]

FORTY EIGHT

[ARMONICA]

"I'm sorry—why am I stuck with you again?"

Zach rolled his eyes, tapping away something on his iPad while the car drove through the evening traffic.

"Because I don't have a date and Tyler's flight is three hours delayed." He said, without even looking at me, and for the hundredth time perhaps, I let out a heavy sigh.

Just the mention of Tyler had my gut twist.

"Quit being dramatic," Zach spared me a brief glance before dropping his focus back to the screen. "It's only a matter of a few hours, then you're free to go back to whatever."

I knew where he was going with that insinuation. "Are you mad at me?" I asked, frowning.

It wasn't even surprising anymore. Recently, everyone had been mad at me. Maybe I did have a role to play for Zara and Brandon to ignore me like a plague. But God knows, I didn't mean to hurt them. Over the last few weeks, Zara had grown on me. And not only because my idiot cousin was crazy for her but also because she was the kind of person I always aspired to be. Zara was bold, confident and such a beautiful person overall. When I met her at Nathan's wedding reception and got to talk to her, I'd be honest. I grew a tad jealous.

Why? Because I could never compete with her. She was so fucking gorgeous. And the way she talked and walked and behaved, it was all so elegant and classy. Especially when she wasn't even from a well-off background. No. I wasn't saying people who came from less money weren't well behaved, it just....there was some difference, wasn't it? Tiny details that set those two worlds apart. There were always compromises and adjustments one had to make when someone moved from less money to more money or vice versa. Be it old habits or the way one dressed, it could be anything.

But there was no need for Zara to make such adjustments, she was already so sophisticated. No doubt Maddox could do anything for her, she deserved that kind of devotion.

Initially, I was jealous of her because I thought...I thought she was with Brandon. He even said she was his date. Something inside me dropped deep into my stomach at the new information. Before the reception, I had only met Brandon thrice, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been crushing on me. I still remembered the first time I met him in dad's office. He was there for something related to his work while I went to see dad so he would allow me to attend Zoe's engagement party in Paris. Zoe being the only college friend I was still in contact with.

Anyway, we didn't get to talk that day. But I did ask him for a dance when we met at the fundraising ball last year...

"I'm not," Zach said with all the seriousness in the world. It took me another long second to realize in what reference he said that. I asked him if he was mad at me.

"Nice save. Try again," I deadpanned, while he only shrugged.

The truth was, I knew the reason for his bad mood. I just wanted to hear it from his mouth.

"It's because of Maddox, isn't it?" I poked him again.

I knew I was right when his jaw ticked.

"Come on, spit it out. It's better to let it all before it happened in front of the wrong crowd." Zach rarely lost his temper that easily, but being his sister, I knew a thing or two about him. I knew he over-analyzed a lot. If something bothered him or didn't sit right with him, he would spend hours and days trying to figure it out. And right now, something was bothering him. I could just tell.

Zach must have realized I wasn't backing off until he eased my curiosity (I could be stubborn when I really wanted), so he turned off the iPad and sat straighter, eyes locked outside the window.