Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
I swallowed and worked to slow my breathing. I needed to contain the hope of getting out of this mess so I could broach the topic gently without admitting to any of my lies.
“So, you understand why I hesitate to get married again?”
“I do understand, Lucian…” Before I could sigh in relief, he kept going, dashing any delusions I’d built in the last minutes. “But just because your parents got lucky and found each other on their first try, doesn’t mean second chances don’t exist. Your parents wouldn’t want you to give up on finding the same love they had. And I have no doubt that if they were alive, they would have made the same deal with you as I did. Which means, just because I understand your hesitance, doesn’t mean I’m letting you out of our bargain.”
He gave me the same knowing look he gave when I was a teenager, and he caught me sneaking drinks at one of the events. The one that said, nice try, kid.
The lies I planned to be relieved of, snapped right back around my chest.
“How is your girlfriend, by the way? What was her name again? Aspen?”
His innocent question tightened the screws, branding my guilt into my skin. The reminder of tossing out Aspen’s name at the last minute added another layer of complications, compounding the situation.
I took a drink to help swallow the lump in my throat. “She’s good.”
“You’re happy?” Felix asked.
“Of course. Do I not look happy?”
He laughed and looked down at the table as if collecting his thoughts. I braced myself when he lifted his eyes and parted his lips, but the waiter came. I should have experienced an ounce of relief, having escaped whatever my godfather wanted to say, but I knew that ordering our meal wouldn’t deter him. Leaving me to hold my breath—waiting for the guillotine to drop.
Felix hadn’t asked me to lunch to do more male bonding, and I was on borrowed time until the real reason revealed itself. When it did, I had a feeling it would obliterate the pressure squeezing around my chest. More than that, it would obliterate me and the tenuous control I clung to with my lies.
I handed the menus to the waiter once we placed our orders and watched his retreating back, stringing out the seconds of avoiding Felix’s attention.
Although, my plan failed. Instead of buying myself time, I gave him the opportunity to reach in his pocket and lay a bombshell on the table. Instead of giving myself the chance to brace for the car crash looming ahead, it blindsided me.
Because when I looked back, my mother’s ring waited for me. The five-carat emerald cut diamond sat in the platinum band. Strands of smaller diamonds wove across each other to frame the jewel.
The lump in my throat climbed higher.
The memory of the last time I saw the ring choking me.
“I know you said you never wanted to see it again after you got it back from Daria, but I thought it might be time,” Felix explained.
“I’m here for the ring.”
Cold blue eyes stared up at me from the inside of our apartment. I meant her apartment. I had no claim to anything inside of it. Not the furniture we picked out, the paintings, the dishes we got on our wedding day, nor the woman blocking my entrance who stole it all from me.
“It’s not your ring, Lucian,” she claimed.
I tried to push past the hard edge of her words and remember the woman I fell in love with. I tried to recall her soft laughter and warm touches, but it had all vanished when she explained that it had all been a façade to get my money. All that remained was the chilling hollow pit bubbling with regret, shame, and more anger than I knew what to do with.
“It’s my mother’s and as we are no longer married, I want it back.”
Her laughter trickled like ice down my spine. “Why? So you can give it to your next poor victim.”
She spat the word victim, and I clenched my fists, searching for control. Anger pierced my lungs, crawling up my chest to break free, and I struggled to breathe past it. “Give me. The fucking. Ring. Daria.”
Her swallow was the only hint of her nerves before she hoisted her chin high. “It’s not. Your fucking ring. Lucian,” she shot back.
I stood taller, wanting to block out the light from her world. Wanting to close in on her until she saw nothing but me and feared what I was really capable of.
She took a step back.
Good.
At this point, she should be scared—because I wasn’t sure how much control I had left, and I grew darker by the second.
I gripped both sides of the doorframe and leaned into her space, my lips twitching into a manic smile. I stared right at her and let her see how close to the edge of losing it I was. If she wanted to play victim, then I would give her a true reason to.