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"Of course, we're real," he says quickly.
"Oh, so, when you destroy my father, did you plan to keep me?” The Le Blanches are a respectable family with a name to live up to. “I can't imagine that Hunter Le Blanche was going to stay married to the daughter of the disgraced senator, so tell me the truth. That was going to be the end of us, too, wasn't it?"
"Luna, please." His eyes plead with me as much as his words.
"Tell me the truth, Hunter. You were going to get rid of me, weren't you? That's what you were going to do. That was the plan."
He hangs his head down in shame. When he looks back at me, it's with the deepest regret, and the answer I seek is there in his eyes.
"Yes." His voice pushes the weight holding me down even further into the ground, as if someone increased the gravity in the room.
More realization sinks in as I stare at him. He needs a wife to have his position in the company. That part never changed. All this devil was going to do was swap me out for a new wife.
“You were going to cut me loose and get married again,” I surmise in a searching voice, as if someone whispered it into my ear. “That’s what you were going to do. I just happened to fit into the time constraint. Kill two birds with one stone. Marry me to get your precious position and bide time while you find something to destroy my father, get rid of both of us once you do, then you’d set out to find the right wife.”
His expression is tense and unmoving, like a statue that will never come to life. All confirmation that I’m right, and I hate it. I hate it so damn much, and I hate that I’ve come to know him so well.
“That’s the truth, isn’t it, Hunter?” I need to hear him say the words.
“Yes.”
Hot tears tip over my lids and stream down my cheeks, and I feel fractured from the inside out.
"I chose you," I stutter, remembering the night of our engagement party, the night Hunter and Ryan fought. The same night I gave him my virginity.
"I chose you," I repeat, thinking of all the parts of me I gave him. All the parts of me that will always belong to him and I can never take back.
"I chose you, too, Luna," he replies. “My plans changed. I wasn’t going to follow through with letting you go.”
That should make me feel better, but it doesn’t. It hurts even more.
"I... don’t think that’s your decision anymore. You?—"
"I love you," he cuts in, stopping me in my tracks by saying the words I've been desperate to hear.
I’ve wanted to hear him say those three words for so long, sometimes I’d dream that he did. Now that I hear them, the hurt I feel dissolves them to nothingness.
"I love you, Luna. I fell in love with you. That’s the truth."
I shake my head again, feeling the stab of disappointment growing bigger with every passing second. It hurts so much it feels like my heart has been carved out of my chest.
"You don't know what love is, Hunter Le Blanche. The only thing you know how to do is destroy. That’s why you’re called the Shark."
The walls around me are closing in, and the air is getting tight, like it might snap.
I have to get out of here. And I have to do it now.
I turn and walk away, but Hunter catches my arm and pulls me back.
"Please don't go, Luna. I do love you."
"Let go of me."
“No.”
“Yes.” I wrench my arm away from him and back away. "You are despicable, Hunter. When you created your plan, you didn’t care about what would happen to me. All these months of us being together, you knew the truth. You tell me my father isn't the man I think he is, but neither are you, so stay away from me.”
Those last words shut him down, and he stops pursuing me.
