A Forbidden Love (Eligible Billionaires Book 9) (12 page)

True, if she ever stayed here…which she didn’t…hardly ever. But she didn’t yet need to share that detail with a cousin she’d met exactly once.

Alexi set his water on a coaster on the coffee table and leaned back into the chair. “One of my clients has a gig coming up next week, and I wondered if you wanted to go. Thursday? Mom and Dad are going, and we were thinking you could come with us and we’d all grab some dinner before the show.”

“Love to.” And she would. But her stomach tickled as anxiety rolled through her gut. Why? Because being in public with her family would mean questions. From people. And of course it didn’t matter anymore, because she was a grown woman and her father was in jail…but she’d have to tell Amelia and Devon…And suddenly everything that she’d been taught to keep private would become public.

“Great.” Alexi slid his phone from his pocket. “I’ll send you the details.” He glanced back up at her. “There’s another reason I’m here.”

Ilana’s chest tightened.

“I’m going to New York on business, and I wondered if you wanted to come too.”

“New York?” Ilana tilted her head. “I mean…I love New York, but…why?”

“To see your dad.”

Ilana’s heart stilled. Was this how it would be with her father’s family? Would they constantly harp on seeing her father? Pressure her? Make her feel bad for not wanting to see him?

“Did Uncle Dimitry send you?”

“No. Actually, Mom and Dad would be pissed that I asked. I’m here on my own.”

Ilana twisted Mama’s opal ring around her finger. “I don’t think I want to see him.”

“Fair enough. I wanted to throw it out there. I’d go with you, you wouldn’t have to see him alone. Really”—Alexi glanced around the room before his gaze settled on Ilana— “he’s going to die. I just don’t want you to regret that you didn’t see him.”

“Do you think he regrets that he didn’t see me grow up?”

Alexi kept his lips tight. He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “I don’t know how he feels.” He looked at her. “And frankly, I don’t care. I’m making this offer because of how
you
might feel. I think keeping you away from your dad was a mutual decision on your parents’ part.”

“Mutual? Really? Was it a
mutual
decision that my father hit my mother and we ran away to California?”

“No.” Alexi shook his head. “No, you can’t ever defend a man hitting a woman, and I won’t try. But when your mom and dad were at my parents’ house—”

“What?” Ilana frowned…that couldn’t be right. Mama had met with Papa…at Dimitry’s home? Her heart split.

Alexi closed his eyes. “Dam.”

“My parents were together. Without me?”

“Once. One time. I was thirteen, so you would’ve been, what? Nine?”

Ilana nodded. “Right, I think that’s right.”

“From what I gathered, it was to discuss you.”

“Me?”

“You. Whether you’d see your father or us. What was best…” Alexi shook his head. “I remember my dad and your mom didn’t want you around your dad, which meant they didn’t think you should see any of us, either.”

How could they have made these decisions without her? How could Mama have made these decisions and never told her? Not even after Ilana was an adult?

“According to my dad, your father wasn’t doing well. He’d chosen some businesses that weren’t good for you to be around.”

“I’ve heard about my dad’s
businesses
. There’s a reason he’s in jail.”

“I’m sorry…I thought…I don’t know what I thought. Look, your mom must’ve thought that it was best you didn’t know.”

“Right,” Ilana said softly.

“Look, my mom didn’t go see her mother before she died, and I know it still haunts her, decades later. That’s the only reason I asked. If I can help you from feeling that way, then I will. That’s what family does. And I want us to be a family. My brothers would do the same. You could ask any one of us to go with you. Or my parents.”

Ilana knew he was right. Uncle Dimitry had already said he’d go with Ilana to visit her father. But did she want to see her father? Did she need to? And how would she feel when she got the call that he had passed?

“No pressure, okay?”

Ilana nodded.

Alexi stood, and Ilana walked him down the stairs.

“I’ll see you next week?”

“Definitely.” She pasted a smile to her face. Alexi pulled her in for a quick hug.  The bell above the door chimed and Devon walked into the Center. He took in the scene in front of him and lifted a brow, questioning. Of course. She was hugging a man he’d never met, never seen before.

Her chest tightened. Now she’d have to tell Devon about her family. Why was she so unwilling? It had to be her past. The words that her mother had hammered into her brain—
don’t tell people about your family
—still held power over her. And did she want to tell Devon about her family right now, with the entire Center filled? Did she want to tell Alexi about Devon? Not really.

“Devon, this is Alexi.” Her cousin turned to Devon and extended his hand.

“Hey, good to meet you.” Alexi furrowed his brow. “You look familiar. Have we met?”

“Maybe.” Devon smiled. “Are you from Venice?”

“Malibu. But now most the time I’m over in Hollywood unless I’m back here to visit my parents, Ilana’s—”

“Thanks for coming by,” Ilana cut in, her sharp look silencing Alexi. Thankfully, he caught on that she wasn’t ready yet to share all the details of her newfound family.

“Right.” Alexi nodded. “You’re welcome.”

“I’ll let you know about next week, but I think Thursday works.”

“Great, I’ll text you the details.” He glanced at Devon. “See you soon.”

“Sure thing.” Devon turned back to Ilana.

Her heart beat a crazy rhythm. She stepped forward and pressed her lips to Devon’s, hopeful that a kiss would still any questions that he had for her.

*

“I know what you’re hiding.”

Ilana’s heart jolted. She tore her gaze from the pink sunset and looked into Devon’s eyes. He looked at her steadily, his head tilted, the smile that usually warmed Ilana’s heart absent from his lips. “Excuse me?”

“Hiding,” Devon said. “I know what you’re hiding.”

A chill rushed through her body and the bottom dropped out of her gut. Oh. No. Did he know about her aunt and uncle? Had he found out about her father? And why was she so determined not to tell him? She trusted Devon…she…she even loved him. She had to let him in, tell him this, there wasn’t a reason not to share what was going on in her life with him.  “Okay…well…I just found out and—”

“You need to tell Amelia.”

Ilana nodded. “Absolutely. She’s been my best friend since I was eight. She deserves to know too.” Ilana rubbed her hand up and down her arm. Her insides tightened into a ball. “But I didn’t know what to say. I mean, I was always taught not to discuss this…that talking about it could get me in trouble—”

“A lot of people are scared to talk about money.”

Ilana scrunched her eyebrows.
Money?
What was Devon talking about? Wasn’t this about her family, her—

“But I wish you’d told me about the assignment problem with the lease,” Devon said.

Her stomach unknotted. Air released from her lungs. She hadn’t
forgotten
about the problem with the lease, she’d simply stopped focusing on it because there’d been so many more things to think about—her dying incarcerated father, his identical twin brother, and her extended family.

“I understand you not telling me when we first met…I mean, you were just opening the Center, and why would you tell a stranger about a problem with the business?”

“H-h-how did you find out?”

“Sterling Legend put me in touch with Felicia when I told him I was looking for local properties to buy and Felicia told me.”

“Felicia? I didn’t know you were looking for buildings.”

“We are. I am. It’s a new part of Travati Financial. A form of community activism. Your building is our first purchase. The plan is to buy buildings and offer rent on a sliding scale, dependent on the business’s benefit to the community. Bigger benefit means lower rent.”

“So a business like mine and Amelia’s—”

“Would have the lowest rent available, with a long-term lease.”

“You’re kidding.” Here, now, silhouetted against the perfect sunset on the beach, this man she’d fallen for was about to save her entire business from ruin. “You’re saving me. You know that? You’re saving me from a fatal mistake.”

Devon pulled her close. “We all make mistakes.”

“Not that big. Not in business.” She pressed her palm to the side of her head. “My God, Devon, I didn’t know what I was going to do. We’d already put so much time and money into the Center that there was no way we could start over, and I had no idea how I was going to tell Amelia.”

Pinpricks of tears in her eyes. She’d been lost with this problem, so deeply in denial about how worried she was about the Center. It was like a miracle, Devon standing here on the beach, at sunset, telling her he was going to help her. Relief washed through her. A tear dropped onto Ilana’s cheek and she brushed it away with her fingertips. She was crying, she felt like a big baby crying. But the relief replacing her fear…oh my God…Devon was saving her business. Her dream. “Amelia told me to have an attorney review the lease, but I was too cheap. I trusted Mrs. Luskey to know what she was talking about.”

“Attorneys are pricey, but sometimes they’re worth it.”

“Especially when your entire lease is written in legalese.” She shook her head and swallowed. “And I don’t speak legalese.” She turned her gaze to Devon. “You just saved the business.”

“And you gave me the perfect template to show business owners what we’re looking for. I’m already talking with a couple of people who want to put a childcare facility in the space next to yours.”

“Those would be our neighbors?”

“Plus, there’s still room for the Center to expand.”

Ilana’s heart warmed. A smile curled over her lips. This moment was the answer to all her worries about the Center, and the man she was falling in love with was standing here providing the solution.

“Throw in a family-friendly restaurant,” he went on, “and we’ve got the ideal tenants for the building.”

“So you bought it, my building. Just like that.”

Devon smiled. “I bought it, your building, just like that.”

The smile on Ilana’s face grew even wider. “I don’t think…no one has ever done anything like this for me. I mean…you just took away my worries. The Enrichment Center…with the business we’re building, it will be there for years.”

“That’s my hope.” He lifted her hand and kissed it. His gaze warm, a soft smile playing on his lips. “That someday our kids will get to go there too.”

Ilana’s heart flipped in her chest. Their
kids
? “That’s what I want too.”

Devon nodded and pulled her close. She rested her forehead against his. In Devon’s arms, she was finally home. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for understanding why I was trying to figure this out on my own.”

He pulled back and tilted her chin up with his fingertips, looking deep into her eyes. “I know you and your mom spent a lot of years taking care of each other. That you took care of her, and she took care of you, and things were tough. I know you have the best heart and that your intentions are good. I see that. The minute I found out—”

“Were you upset?”

“I was worried.” He shook his head. “But just like you didn’t tell me everything, there are things that I haven’t told you, too.”

A cool fear whispered through Ilana’s blood.

“In the nightclubs, the bad things that happened.” His eyes darted away from her face and up the beach. “I didn’t look as hard as I should’ve. I didn’t ask the questions that were in my mind. I should’ve asked someone, talked to my brothers about my suspicions. Instead, I pretended like everything was okay. And then when that person got caught?” Devon took a long deep breath. “Well, he went to jail, but I had to testify against him to get him there.”

“You did the right thing.”

“Only because the government forced me too. They threatened to indict me too if I didn’t cooperate. Looking back, now, I want to believe that I would’ve done the right thing eventually…but I don’t know. I was a different person then. I was all about the parties and the money and the lifestyle. Those were the things I was after.”

“And now?”

“And now I want you. I want you and I want Venice and I want a life that includes family and friends and a community. This place, you, it all feels like home to me. This is what I want.”

“It’s what I want too.” Home was in Devon’s arms. He was her family now. She had to tell him…Devon needed to know. She wouldn’t keep secrets from him. He needed the truth and she needed to tell him. Deep breath.

“You know the man at the center, the one I hugged good-bye?”

Devon nodded and looked into her eyes.

“Well…that’s my cousin.”

“Your cousin?” Devon tilted his head. “But I thought you didn’t have family besides your mother.”

“So did I.”

A warm wind whipped off the Pacific and caressed them both. They’d stood, arms around each other for what felt like forever, while Ilana told him the story of her newfound family.

“This entire time, your father’s family was in Malibu?” Devon asked when she finished.

Ilana nodded. “And Mama knew, but didn’t tell me.”

“And you’re sure it’s them, right?”

“Oh, I’m sure. Four cousins, all of them older, plus an aunt and an uncle.”

Devon’s face dropped and he looked down at the sand. Ilana’s heart hurt. “I just found out.” She squeezed both his hands. “You have to understand, when Mama and I moved from New York we were running away. We ran away because my father abused my mother. She was terrified that he’d find us and take me away from her, or hurt her again, or…” Ilana shook her head. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything last week, but keeping quiet about family has been drilled into my head since I was six years old. I was taught not to talk about my father, that talking about him was dangerous, because someone could find me and take me away from Mama.”