Chapter 3Time Knows I Loved You, and Always Have

“Leo?”

Just yesterday morning, I had kissed that face. Now, it felt like I was looking at a stranger.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, sliding in beside her. The small space immediately felt charged with a strange tension. She went right back to her work, her fingers flying across the glass slate. No greeting. No awkward silence filled with unspoken questions. It was as if my sudden reappearance hadn’t caused a single ripple in her life.

A bitter disappointment settled in my gut. Fine. If she was going to ignore me, even to kick me out, she could at least have the decency to say it to my face.

So, I decided to strike first.

“Did my parents know you were cheating on me before they died?”

A sharp hiss of indrawn breath came from the front seat. The temperature in the car seemed to drop twenty degrees.

I saw Ava’s brow furrow almost imperceptibly, a flicker of anger in her eyes. Was she mad that I’d dared to tarnish her precious first love’s reputation?

“There was nothing to know,” she said, her voice cool and even. “Of course, they didn’t.” She paused. “Rest up tonight. I’ll take you to visit their graves in a few days.”

Nothing to know?

Was she saying it was over between her and Ethan? That it ended after I disappeared? Then why did her assistant call me ‘Mr. Leo’ and not her husband?

The silence returned, colder than before. I fought back a surge of anger and turned to look out the window, immediately captivated by the world flashing by. Dazzling commercial districts, skyscrapers that scraped the heavens. Countless glowing screens made it feel like daytime, with celebrities frozen mid-pose inside them. The whole city was a kaleidoscope of light and color.

“Ava, what the hell is that!” I yelped, slapping her arm instinctively and pointing at a massive cube on the sidewalk from which a giant, holographic hand was suddenly extending.

Startled by my own outburst, I flinched, my head ducking right into the crook of her shoulder.

Her body went rigid. She didn’t push me away, but she didn’t touch me either.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, my face flushing hot as I scrambled to sit up straight. “I’m… not used to my new identity as a country bumpkin.” I stole a glance out the window. The giant hand was gone, replaced by a lush, impossibly realistic forest inside the cube.

“It’s 3D holographic technology,” she explained, smoothing the fabric of her dress where I’d grabbed it. Her eyes never left her work. “It creates immersive experiences.”

“So… it’s fake?”

“Yes.”

Another half-hour passed in silence before the car finally stopped in front of a magnificent, castle-like building with the words “The Grand Regent Hotel” etched in gold above the entrance.

“Mr. Leo, we’ve arrived at the hotel,” Chelsea announced from the front. “You can get a good night’s rest here.”

So, she wasn’t taking me home.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I snapped, my anger finally boiling over. “I want to go home. Ava, take me home!”

That house was my parents’ life savings. Even if she had remarried, she wouldn’t be living there with Ethan. She couldn’t. And if she was going to cast me aside, she owed me a clear, clean break.