Page 76 of Vow

Haven blinked.

What. The. Fuck.

“Andino’s company,” Haven murmured.

“That’s what I said.”

Yes, it was.

Jesus fucking Christ.

How could he?

How dare Andino?

• • •

Where are you right now?

The text seemed innocent on the surface. Nothing to suggest Haven was raging mad, and out for blood. She had carefully measured each word she sent to Andino so that he didn’t think something was up. She didn’t want him to know something was up yet.

His response had been almost automatic with, At my restaurant in Manhattan. Busy today. Want me to call you later?

Haven hadn’t even bothered to reply back to that question. No, she didn’t want him to call her back. After today, she didn’t ever want to see his fucking face again.

She had figured out long ago that Andino could be a little manipulative when he wanted to be. That if a situation called for it, and he knew it would work out to his favor, he had no issues with playing very dirty to get what he wanted.

Haven never thought he would try that shit with her. Well, not to this goddamn extreme. Not to the point where even knowing her mother was sick, and that she greatly wanted to get out of New York for her mom, and to put distance between him and her … he still stepped in her way behind the scenes to make sure she wasn’t going anywhere.

She never thought he would do this to her.

How was that love?

Maybe an unhealthy love. An obsessive, crazy, and nonsensical love. One meant to covet, hurt, and destroy. One that Haven didn’t want at all.

She didn’t want love if it meant that.

Usually, Haven would take a cab when she was traveling through the city. That, or the subway. It was faster, and easier. The thing was—she hadn’t even cared to wait long enough for the cab to get to her place after her meeting with Giovanni sent her flying home in a rage. She’d grabbed her keys, and took her car out of the garage for the first time in months.

Worst purchase of her life, really.

She never even needed a car in the city.

Today, though, the car was coming in handy for once. Except she was forced to sit in gridlocked upper Manhattan traffic while the warm May sun beat down on her windshield. The second she got a chance to pull off the road—she was only a couple of blocks away from Andino’s restaurant now—she did just that. Even knowing she was likely going to have her car towed, she parked it right where she stopped.

Fuck it.

They could keep the goddamn car.

Haven didn’t care.

She stepped onto the sidewalk, and blended into the crowd of people going in all different directions. She barely even saw their faces. It was all a blur as each one of her steps took her that much closer to a man she wanted to hurt like he had hurt her.

Time and time again.

He just hurt her.

The two blocks it took Haven to get to Andino’s business passed before she even fully realized it had happened. She was lost to her own anger and thoughts. She couldn’t even think about anything else.