<spanng="EN">Seth’s POV


    <spanng="EN">“Well? What did she say?” I asked when Dad returned.


    <spanng="EN">“She’lle, but not to the house. She asked us to make a reservation. She is so stubborn. You would think that she understood that we are doing this to help her, not hurt her,” he replied with clear frustration in his voice.


    <spanng="EN">“Dad, we just need to sit her down and exin, but I don’t want to push her too far. It’s not worth losing my sister over. Ana’s smart. She has made even more ns than the ones she made with you. She just gave Roger her engagement ring back. She’s going to humiliate him and leave him, and Sasha looking like the bad guys. She was twisting the script on them and nning to walk away with her head high. I don’t think she needs to marry Holden anymore,” I replied.


    <spanng="EN">Holden stiffened next to me and said, “I already booked us a VIP room for us to discuss this over dinner tomorrow at six. She doesn’t have to marry me, but I would like to marry her. I hate that something happened to make her change so drastically. I spoke to my mother about it, and she is going to talk to Tiffany again. After Ana’sments yesterday about whether she was protected, it seems something happened to her that we weren’t aware of. I need to know what happened. I can’t take how she looks at me anymore,” Holden announced.


    <spanng="EN">“Reid, please tell me you didn’t bully our daughter. Are you trying to make herpletely cut ties with us?” my mother asked.


    <spanng="EN">“Alicia, you know as well as I do that Ana has always been too stubborn for her own good. I know what’s best for my daughter. Do not forget that I love her to the moon and back. I would never do anything that I thought would hurt her, but right now, she’s not thinking clearly. She refuses to budge, and the scandal could ruin her. She was already engaged to Holden, and it’s best for her to go along with it. She loved Holden; it was obvious to anyone around them. Whatever this is, it needs to be dealt with, cleanly. We don’t need everyone to know our business. It really is the best option,” my father answered her.


    <spanng="EN">Hearing his reply didn’tfort me. In fact, I knew that whatever he told Ana probably didn’t reflect the love he had for her. I offered to go, but he insisted. He is treating this like a business deal, forgetting that Ana was


    <spanng="EN">already hurt. She had already blocked me. I guess he’s going to be the next one to get cut out of her life. I need to make him see reason. I started this mess; I needed to fix it.


    <spanng="EN">“Dad, you need to think carefully about what you are going to say at dinner tomorrow. Ana is guarded and upset. She blocked me after we went to Cook’s Custom Jewelry on Thursday. She has been put through more than we were aware of, and this whole situation is a mess. I don’t want to lose my sister. You need to remember that we don’t even know where she lives anymore. She has be very good at avoiding us, do you think that a high–pressure situation is going to help, or hurt us, Dad?” I asked.


    <spanng="EN">“Seth is right. I believe we need to take a much softer approach. Ana’s like a feral cat. She’s willing to strike at any of us if we get too close to her right now. I think we just need to sit down and talk, clear the air. We don’t need to force the marriage to be held on the original date. We just need to cancel the wedding with Roger and make that information official. He’s already married, so he can’t kick up too much. I already have a copy of his marriage certificate. I won’t let him make Ana a mistress or humiliate her. Then we can let it ‘slip‘ that and I have been talking for a couple of months, and rekindled the feelings we had for each other. All we have to do is let a picture of us holding hands surface, and this whole thing should all be behind us. No one would be willing to go against the Caldwell and Vaughn families over this,” Holden pointed out.


    <spanng="EN">“Holden is right. The harder we came at her, the more she backed away. I also agree with him that Tiffany didn’t do as we asked. I’ve put a lot of thought into when the real changes came, and it started our second year of college. Ana started to gain weight. But things were obviously bad when we came back the summer after our first year. I always thought she was going to let her anger go, bute on. Holding a grudge for ten years? That’s more than a third of her life. It’s not a tantrum; there’s something we missed, and we need to fix it. Holden’s right, she might just be angry with us for not protecting her. Just look over at the Vaughns” balcony. Tiffany and Gretchen look like they would like to kill Ana,” I advised, and everyone leaned forward to see what I was talking about.


    <spanng="EN">Thankfully, Tiffany and Gretchen didn’t notice us. So my parents and Holden all got to see the look on their faces. It was apparent they hated Ana, and I know for a fact that she has never done anything to them Holden was right to speak to his mother about this. I think we’ve now discovered the issue, but my mother’s reaction suggests she was scared to confront Naomi. We all knew how Tiffany was, spiteful and jealous of Ana when they were children. As Tiffany got older, she managed to hide it better, but I just think the mystery was solved. We just need to know what happened.


    <spanng="EN">Naomi was the first to notice us looking at them and waved towards my mother. That got Tiffany a Gretchen’s attention, and they quickly masked they’re looks of disgust and smiled gently at us. My stomach turned. I was never going to ept Tiffany, especially not as my wife. My mother looked at me, and the pain. on her face was unmistakable. I heard a low sob, and Dad wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side. Well, at least we know why Ana kept quiet. Because whatever this mess was, it would have torn apart her friendship with Naomi.


    <spanng="EN">“Maybe we should invite the Vaughns to the dinner, and get it all out in the open,” my mother hesitantly suggested.


    <spanng="EN">“I don’t know, Mom. I think it would be best for the four of us, and Ana. She doesn’t want to talk about it, and having Tiffany there won’t make it any easier. But if we’re going to confront them, we need to have Tiffany and Gretchen both there. Otherwise, Tiffany will defect everything onto Gretchen. Her family isn’t as powerful as the Vaughns, and unless she’s there to defend herself, we won’t get the actual truth. I want the truth, no matter how painful it will be. I’ve felt like a disappointment to her all these years. She used to look up to me, she loved me, and things are not the same anymore. She still loves me, but she is holding me and Holden ountable for what happened. I know she is, I can tell that our rtionship is much different than before.” I replied.


    <spanng="EN">My parents are upset, but Mom ispletely shattered. She loved Ana, and she tried to be there for her, for us, our whole lives. To know that Ana took the me and refused to speak about it is tearing us apart. She was trying to protect us from whatever it was, and none of us supported her in her darkest time. I want to go over there and force those two to tell me what they did to my sweet sister. We all know that every time we tried to force Ana to let it go or be nice to them, it had hurt her deeply.


    <spanng="EN">I didn’t mean to, but I keep messing things up. For instance, by using the guise of helping, I offered the solution of Ana marrying Holden. At the time, it seemed like a great idea. I thought she would be so grateful that Holden saved her from being ruined, she would be willing to make it work. I thought it was a done deal when Holden agreed to go through with it.


    <spanng="EN">I remember that timeframe well. Holden and I were only interested in finding the next girl. We thought Ana was fine because only a fool would have hurt her. I guess I was so used to having my orders followed, even back then, that I didn’t once stop to think that there was an issue. Tiffany had better stay away from me from now on. I don’t put my hands on women, but I could still call in a favor to have another woman deal with her. I can feel someone staring at me, and when I turned to look, Tiffany gave me a little finger wave.


    <spanng="EN">I turned back to the stage. She ys an innocent very well, but I know better now. I would have never imagined that she was the same person who was ring daggers at Ana earlier. How she was acting now was an illusion. The person we saw earlier was the honest, unfiltered Tiffany. A snake in the grass.


    <spanng="EN">I leaned over to speak to Holden quietly. “We need to find out what Tiffany did to Ana. I don’t want to let her out of the room until she tells us. I will bring security, and you can too. We need to deal with whatever it was. We need to remind her that she can always count on us to be there for her. So, no matter what happens tomorrow, we need to make sure that she knows that we love her, and we will never let her get hurt again,” I advised.


    <spanng="EN">“Already ahead of you, Seth, I have already purchased an engagement ring for her. She will be Mr. Holden Vaughn. I hate to say this, but I support your father’s decision to push her into marrying me. I will love and take care of her for the rest of her life, but I might need some help getting her to the altar. But after she’s my wife, I won’t allow anyone to hurt her again, even her own family,” Holden answered me.


    <spanng="EN">“Then we’re in agreement, Holden. You’re still the man she loves, but she’s hurt. We just don’t know how badly. yet. You need to convince her that you will be the best husband she could ask for, Holden. I’m entrusting you with one of the most important people in my life. Even if you are my best friend, I won’t let you hurt her,” I replied.


    <spanng="EN">“I love your sister, Seth. I’ll never hurt her,” Holden replied.


    <spanng="EN">“After the auction is over, I’ll go over and smooth things between us out, so she will be more willing to talk to us tomorrow at dinner,” I responded.


    <spanng="EN">“That’s not going to happen, Seth. I can see her balcony, and they all left,” Holden replied.


    <spanng="EN">I quickly turned to look at her balcony, and he was right, she was gone. I hope she actually shows up tomorrow. I need to apologize and make things right between us. After I find out what she did, Tiffany will be dealt with appropriately.