Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“My father loves me—”
“I know he does. But he uses you too.”
I stepped away, turned my back to Axel, and moved closer to the wall. There was a painting there I’d never noticed before. I stared at it without really seeing it, my hands continuing to squeeze my arms.
He gave me a couple minutes to absorb all the horror.
I continued to stare at the painting.
“Think about it,” he said quietly. “What are the odds that I would walk into the same restaurant as you with another woman?”
My breathing remained hard. My eyes turned wet.
“Quite a coincidence, if you ask me.”
I stared at the floor next.
His voice dropped. “It ruined me to do that to you.”
The memory was still horrible, seeing him pull out the chair for her and drink his wine.
“I begged him not to make me do it—fucking begged—but he didn’t give a shit. As long as he got what he wanted, he didn’t care about the consequences. He didn’t care that it broke your heart irrevocably.” He came closer to me, his voice growing louder. “Screwing over your father and demanding you to be my wife was the only way I could get you back. It’s not how I wanted to do things. It’s not how I wanted us to have our wedding. But I think we would have ended up together if your father hadn’t manipulated us both. I believe we would have ended up together.” His hands moved to my shoulders, and he gripped me, his head resting against the back of my head. “Baby?”
I stepped away, needing air to breathe, needing to escape the suffocating heat that had come out of nowhere.
He gave a sigh in disappointment.
“He—he wouldn’t do that to me.” I faced him again, tears heavy in my eyes.
“I know this is a lot—”
“He would never…” The tears grew so heavy, they skidded down my cheeks.
“I know this is a lot,” he repeated. “But I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“And my father would never do something so heinous—”
“It comes down to this.” He came closer to me. “One of us is lying—and it’s not me.”
“You could have made all of this up so I would forget about Cassandra.”
He gave an annoyed sigh. “Quite an elaborate lie.”
I stepped away, needing more space from him.
He winced when I moved away from him. “I’m not lying, Scarlett.”
“Then let me confront my father—”
“No. I told you what he’ll do.”
“But if he tries to kill your father, I’ll know it’s him—”
“And he said if that happens, he’ll lose you, so I may as well lose someone too.” He came closer to me. “You promised me you wouldn’t say anything. My father’s life is literally on the line right now.”
“It’s an amazing coincidence that you’re accusing my father of all these things, and I can never question him about it.” My eyes shifted away. “That he can never confirm or deny these allegations. Quite convenient.” My eyes moved back to him.
He wore an expression he’d never had before. The anger in his eyes was masked with defeat. His shoulders slouched. His skin was suddenly paler than it’d ever been. All the intensity he usually wore when he looked at me had evaporated in just a few seconds. “You don’t believe me.”
“I—I didn’t say that.”
“You either believe me, or you don’t,” he said simply. “I thought you would.”
“My father… We’re so close. He loves me so much. I just can’t—”
“I love you more than he ever will. Than he ever has.” He continued to speak with defeat, without passion. “When I tried to break things off and you wouldn’t let me, I fell so fucking hard for you. When you asked if there was something I wasn’t telling you, I wanted to break down. You saw me in a way no one ever has. I hoped that telling you the truth would bring that back, would make you look at me like that again. But I can see that it hasn’t.” He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the floor. “You either need to forgive me for what you think happened with Cassandra…or you need to believe my story. If your answer is neither, I think this marriage is over.” He lifted his eyes to look at me, the sorrow heavy in his stare, like he already knew what I would say. “I love you…so fucking much, but I can’t keep fighting for you. I can’t continue to fight a battle that I clearly have no chance of winning.”
Tears streaked down my cheeks, a culmination of all my emotions, all my despair. The sobs wanted to rack my chest, but I kept them back, refusing to dissolve into a puddle right before his eyes.
He stared at me for minutes and waited for me to say something, his eyes still hollow, still devoid of all emotion. Then he cleared his throat. “It’s late.” He rubbed one of his arms through the sleeve of his shirt. “I’ll sleep in the guest room tonight. Aldo will help you with your things in the morning.” His words trailed off like there could be more, like he hoped I would interrupt him, tell him that I wanted to stay, that I believed his story…