Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
He had done it with Iolanthe, and Daria wasn’t even a fraction as nice as the other girl. He had survived that and given time, he would survive this, too. He would learn to forget. He would learn how not to feel again.
Nik walked towards the suitcase one of his bodyguards had brought in from the hallway earlier. “You said you wanted to leave, right?” He kicked the suitcase towards the door. “So leave.”
Daria couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “But you know that’s empty—-”
Nik opened the door for her. “Go.”
She shook her head wildly. “Didn’t you hear me?” Her voice shook. “I said it’s empty! You know I was pretending!”
But Nik only looked at her with expressionless dark eyes.
It was over, it was really over, she thought.
But she couldn’t make herself accept it.
“Nik, please.” And before she knew it, she was saying the words that she knew she should never say. “Nik, I love—-”
Hatred blazed in his eyes. “If I want someone to love me,” he snarled, “I have a fucking fiancée to do that. So get it in your head – you’re just a cunt, and I don’t even want that now so will you fucking GO before I get security to toss you out?”
There was no gracious way out now. The only gracious thing she could do was not to cry. She walked past Nik and all she could think of was she shouldn’t cry because even now, even after all he had done and said, she still didn’t think she deserved to cry.
She heard Nik slam the door shut behind her. Don’t cry.
She felt everyone’s eyes on her and knew that they all heard Nik’s last words. Don’t cry.
She chose the fire exit over the elevator, and as she ran down flight after flight of stairs, all she could think about was how she deserved this. She loved to flirt, and that was bad. She fell in love too quickly, and that was bad. She lied to Nik out of fear, and that was bad.
She was bad, so she didn’t deserve to cry.
She reached the lobby, only realizing then that she didn’t have anything on her. She called collect to Yanna, knowing it would be useless to call Magnolia. “Yanna, it’s me.”
“What’s wrong?” Yanna asked immediately.
It was a voice of concern, a voice of someone who worried over her and didn’t care if other people thought she was stupid for having someone like Daria as a friend.
Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.
“C-can you help me get back home?”
Part Four
Chapter One
Nik was lost. It was a foolishly emotional word to describe his state, but he knew there was no other word to use. He was lost. He knew it, but he didn’t know how to stop being lost.
It had been three months since he had tossed Daria out. He had, without admitting to himself, scoured the news for hints about what she was doing. Even opened damn Facebook and Instagram accounts to stalk her. But still he learned nothing, Daria’s own accounts dormant in the same three months they had been apart.
This will pass. He had done the right thing, Nik told himself. And this time, he knew there would be no one like Miranda who would force Daria back into his life.
It was over, and it was only right that it was over.
He returned to his office at midnight. He had a private suite connected to it, and it had been his home in the past few weeks. His actual home felt too vast these days. Too damn empty. They just made him fucking brood longer.
He saw he had a voice message waiting for him from a number he didn’t recognize.
“Hey, Nik. This is Alyx.”
Nik stiffened. It was Daria’s friend.
“If you think this is to let you know how Daria’s doing or where she is right now, fat luck, dumbass. I’m calling because I want you to know you’re a fucking idiot. And fucking clueless. You’re so fucking scared to let yourself feel the slightest thing that it’s not even funny. Daria must think she’s fucking a robot when she’s with you. A dumbass robot.
“I don’t give a damn what made you be the way you are – Daria tells me you’ve got your reasons. Yeah, well, you know how ignorance is no excuse for violating laws? Ignorance isn’t any excuse for BREAKING MY FRIEND’S HEART EITHER.”
Nik almost winced at the volume of Alyx’s furious shriek.
“Dumbass!”
He literally heard Alyx cracking her knuckles through the voice message, knew she was probably imagining punching him in the face as she spoke.
“You’re so fucking dumb. You only have to spend one day with her to know she’s real. Dumbass. You go to all those TWENTY-EIGHT MEN you think fucked her before you and you go make them tell the truth. Daria says you’re not a dumbass like I think you are, so prove it. Go do what you should do and make them talk. Make them tell the truth. Dumbass.”