Billionaire's Second Chance At Love

Chapter 112

Willow wasn't sure what she was expecting to find in the lone corner of the grand gardens of Ronin's property, but the last person she thought she would find was the man who had forgotten her so easily.

Dan.

But she would be lying if seeing him hadn't given her hopes she didn't have right having. Her heart thumped towards him and for a second her eyes begged him to stop pretending and torturing her with his obliviousness.

But then she got a better hold on herself and rolled her shoulders. There was no point in wasting emotions where they wouldn't be appreciated. And right now, as much as it hurt her to admit, Dan was the last person to understand how she truly felt on the inside.

"Well, aren't you a huge hypocrite?" she taunted, aware of his presence across the small field of freshly cut grass. He stood against a tall tree, leaning his shoulder against it, ankles crossed almost lazily. The area was shrouded in thick darkness, making it hard to see his expression. However, the way his dark eyes glinted against the faint light of the moon streaming through the branches and leaves suggested he was looking at her—perhaps trying to gauge her reaction.

"I wonder what makes you come to that conclusion."

Willow couldn't help but roll her eyes. "You told me not to trespass on your property, and now you're trespassing on my family's? If that's not hypocrisy at its finest, I don't know what is."

There was a beat of silence before he tipped his head to the side. "I'm not trespassing."

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Of course, you aren't."

"Ronin invited me."

Of course, he did. She had forgotten they could have been on good terms after the fire. Ronin was alive now, and as far as she knew her brother, he would have done his best to show his gratitude for all the help. "That doesn't explain why you had to be so rude to me earlier."

"I was rude to you?" he asked, as if he hadn't seen that accusation coming.

Willow frowned. "Nah, your hospitality was off the charts, dude. I was just messing with you."

For the first time in a long time, she watched his shoulders shake with a low, deep chuckle. It was more like a scoff, but she had known him long enough to tell the difference. "You're one of those, aren't you?"

She had no way of knowing what he was talking about. "Like who?"

"The one with a grudge."

"It's more like reciprocating what others give me. I don't like to be biased."

"So, if I'm right, you plan to reciprocate my rudeness by being rude to me?"

"Exactly!"

"Figured."

She shrugged.

"Why did you come to find me this morning?"

His question caught her off guard, and although she could sense a random lie on the tip of her tongue almost instantly, she took a moment to rethink. "I told you why."

"That thing about Eric?" he asked with a scoff. "We both know that was a fucking lie."

She raised a brow, realizing he was the one who brought up Eric during their exchange earlier. She merely used that information for an easy escape. But seemed like she had only trapped herself more. The trap he had laid very cunningly. "Why did you let me go if you did not believe me?"

He shrugged, and to her mild surprise, peeled his back off the tree, taking a slow step closer. "Why do you think?"

She held his gaze for a moment, trying to decipher the underlying meaning of his question. Was it a challenge, a taunt, or something else entirely? She couldn't quite grasp it.