Hesitation crosses his normally unfeeling gaze as he drags his attention from me back to the door, checking we’re still alone. “It’s better you don’t have all the details, but I can tell you this—she didn’t have a choice.”
I stare at him for long seconds, trying to process what he’s just said. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means pull your shit together. Dad wants to see us in his office in twenty. And cheer the fuck up because he won’t tolerate you being a sad sack over a girl he sees as a traitor.”
I don’t get a chance to ask any other questions before he pushes to his feet and stalks out of the room.
He says she didn’t have a choice, but she could have called me. She could have left me a note or got in touch since.
But she’s done none of that.
And if she’s not going to care about me enough to give me an explanation, I’m not going to waste my time mourning the love I thought we shared.
CHAPTER TWELVE
DAMON
THEN
TEN YEARS AGO
Ishould have kept my mouth shut. Telling him anything puts him at risk, but I can’t watch his heart break the same way mine did all those years ago.
He needs to understand that sometimes in this life we have to do things we don’t want to do, things that have the power to break us, and we just have to get the fuck on with it.
I sigh when I see the slew of texts Mikayla has sent me in the last half hour. She doesn’t seem to understand that I’m an unwilling participant in our arranged marriage.
The sound of her voice makes my fucking skin crawl, and don’t get me started on her personality. I think there are wet paper bags with more charisma than her boring-as-shit personality.
She never had a chance,the voice in the back of my mind adds helpfully.
I always knew I wouldn’t marry for love, but I had at least hoped I would marry someone I had any hope ofliking. Unfortunately the great Salvatore Lombardi decided strengthening our relationship with the Vega family was more important than giving me a wife I can stand to be in the same room with.
Mikayla: Babe, I’ve been trying to call you for three days. Daddy won’t be happy if he finds out you’re ignoring your responsibilities.
Mikayla: Is it so hard to send me a text? You could be dead for all I know.
I scoff. We could both only be so lucky.
Mikayla: Part of our contract includes us being in a real relationship, Damon. You can’t ignore me for days on end.
Sighing, I tap out a response to satisfy my end of the deal. If there were a way to get out of this stupid fucking contract, I would have done it years ago, but unfortunately it’s airtight. The only way to dissolve it would be for one of us to die, and believe me, I’ve considered it.
Damon: I’ve been busy. You should get used to not being able to get in touch because once I take control of the family, I’ll have a fuck ton less time to reply to your bullshit demands. I don’t care what flowers you want for the wedding. It’s your day. I’m just there to sign on the dotted line.
Am I being unnecessarily harsh? Yes.
But I learned a long time ago it’s better to feel nothing, and that includes keeping my insufferable future wife at arm’s length.
I shove my phone into my pocket as I step into my father’s office, where the man himself is frowning at something on his computer.
“Ronan will be in shortly,” I tell him as I drop into one of the seats across from him.
The afternoon sun streams in through the window behind him, but unlike when we were younger, there’s no sign of life outside. Just like the rest of the compound, the yard is devoid of joy.
“You didn’t tell him anything, did you?”
“About how you spent two full days torturing his girlfriend’s family while she was forced to watch? No, I decided that’s on you to tell him. You’re the one that decided a barely eighteen-year-old girl should be held accountable for the sins of her father, so you can be the one to tell him that you’re the reason she ran.”
