Page 104 of Between Love & Ruin

“You knew, didn’t you? Tell me the truth.”

He gulps, a war happening behind those eyes of his that I fell in love with.

“I did.”

Tears stream down my face, and then I fall to my knees, not knowing what to believe anymore. It makes me wonder what was even true.

“Sienna—”

“Don’t, Dominic. I asked you. I asked you multiple times, and you didn’t tell me.”

“Because I knew it would break you, Sienna,” he says, his voice pained as he tries to come closer to me, to take me in his embrace, but I push him away. “I knew the truth would hurt you and you weren’t ready. You would hate me—hate yourself for it.”

“I am not stupid, Dominic,” I glare at him through the tears, and the raw pain on his face makes my heart clench. “I am not a child. I know it was no one’s fault, but after years of wanting to know how it happened, I should have known first. And you should have told me.”

“I should have,” he agrees. “But I was trying to protect you.”

“That’s what you can’t do, Dominic,” I tell him, my voice breaking. “You can’t protect me all the time. I am not a damsel in distress. I had every right to know the truth. I told you multiple times that I will hate you forever if you hide anything from me and you still did.”

“Sienna—” his voice breaks. “You don’t mean that.”

A look in my eyes could possibly tell that I don’t, but I can’t let this go too.

I can’t forget that he did the one thing I asked him not to, and I am tired of people taking my words for granted.

I wipe my tears and bring myself to stand up.

“I need you to leave me alone,” I tell him, my voice stern.

“No, Sienna,” he rushes to hold me. “Please talk to me. Curse me. Hit me. Do whatever you want, but please, don’t tell me to leave you.”

I try to push his arms away from him, hating the unwelcome warmth he brings with him. He tightens his hold on me, pulling me closer to his chest, and no matter how much I want to push him away, a part of me yearns to be this close to him. To let him tend to my open wounds.

Losing my parents had left a scar so deep that no amount of therapy could fill it. For years, I wanted to know exactly what happened and how it happened.

And to think he knew the answers to all those questions yet hid them from me because I was a fragile little things steers me off the edge of my sanity.

“Please, Sienna,” his warm breath hits my ears as he cradles me in his chest. I punch, claw, and push away his chest, but nothing works. “Please. I am sorry. I was never going to hide this from you. I know I should have told you the moment I got to know everything, but please, hear me out.”

“Do what I say for once. Leave me alone. Right now.”

His arms freeze around me at the finality in my words. No matter how much I love him, no matter how much it pains me, I will always stand true to my words.

I let a man lie, manipulate, and hide things from me for years, and I am not about to let another do the same to me.

No matter the fact that I love him more than I probably love myself.

“Okay,” he says, his voice tight. His eyes have turned red from holding back his own tears, raw anguish laced in his voice. “Okay, I will give you space. But I am not letting you go. Not now. Not ever.”

I don’t say anything, my eyes glossed over with unshed tears.

“I mean it, Sienna. I am not letting you. Not even if you hate me. I love you, and I know you love me too. So I will fight everything—you included—to keep it that way.”

He leans down to kiss the top of my head, and despite every cell in my body urging me to push him away, I am not able to.

Because I know this is the last time I will let him do that.

The last time he will ever say those words he made me believe in.