Valeria slowly turns sideways, refusing to look at me.
“Just leave,” she chokes out.“You won, Maya. You got the money, you got the man, you got the house. Just leave now.”
“I’m sorry for everything, Valeria,” I sigh.“I’m sorry we could never just be sisters. I’m so, so sorry…”
“Your sorries mean absolutely nothing to me, Maya,” she whispers.“I just wish you were never born.”
If I had never been born, that definitely would have been a better outcome for Valeria.
She would have had the spotlight and the unburdened life she always wanted.
But for the first time…
I realize I don’t care.
I am here.
I exist.
And I am not going anywhere.
“I’m sorry, again,” I say.“I’ll talk to Graham. I’ll tell him to let you out of here.”
Valeria’s head snaps toward the intercom.
“You? You will tell my husband to let me out?”
“Ex-husband,” I scream back for the very first time.
The iron door immediately clicks open behind me.
Two guards step into the room.
“Ma’am, the session is over. You need to leave right now.”
I don’t put up a fight.
I turn my back on her and begin to walk toward the exit. Valeria lunges at the glass one last time. She leans close to the speaker.
“I’ll make you regret this, Maya,” she rasps, an angelic smile on her face.“You and that fucker.”
Part of me is absolutely certain she will.
20
Maya
Every single cell in my body feels his presence. It’s as if he completely altered my body chemistry the moment he touched me, tuning my instincts to know him. To know exactly when he is stalking me.
And right now, every instinct I have is screaming at me to run.
I abandoned my sister. I visited her today for no other reason than to spite her. I wanted to show her that she’s wrong—that I am not worthless as she always claimed I was. I’m everything to Graham. Toxic, dark, and criminal as it is, he did everything in his power to trap me, and everything in his power to throw her away like trash.
I just wanted her to look at me for once and see that the insults she used to beat me down with weren’t true. Maybe then, if she saw the diamonds around my neck, I’d finally stop believing them myself.
Instead, I just kicked a bleeding woman while she was down. My foot floors the gas pedal, the engine of the Porsche roaring to life. In the rearview mirror, I watch his black Mercedes immediately match my speed.
Yes. Chase me. Chase me.
