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This was no time for wallowing or losing her resolve. She needed to remain steadfast in her plan to bring down an entire family, along with their newly minted empire.
Errol leaned toward her, the smell of his expensive cologne making her want to throw up in her mouth.
“Darling, let’s not forget we have a private plane to board in less than an hour. Wrap this up.” He kissed her on the temple.
Her stomach churned, tempting her to projectile vomit all over his shiny car.
He was intentionally baiting her while destroying Lucas.
Nodding with her chin down, she waited until his door had clicked shut before turning to Lucas and facing the only man she had ever been in love with.
She knew the stakes. Unfortunately, so did Errol. They were simply too high for her to risk.
All kind of ironic, really.
This had been her last and final chance at love—and she’d lost it. Like the white coastal sand less than a mile away, her world sifted through her fingers, and she couldn’t move or think fast enough to save it.
Now that everything that mattered was gone, her objective had to be to destroy the lives of those who had taken it all from her. Threatened her family.
By God, this time, she would win, but she had to keep her eye on the prize.
As such, she took one last opportunity to soak Lucas in so later, she could pull the image from the recesses of her mind with no one the wiser. Her own secret indulgence that couldn’t be pried from the steely grip of her memories.
He was, in a word, beautiful.
His thick dark hair looked messy, having gouged ridges through the thick locks in response to her confirmation of Mia’s earlier bombshell. He wore the distressed jeans he’d thrown on this morning along with a light blue T-shirt. Nothing about him was fancy or screamed of luxe. Rather, he exuded a different kind of superiority. One based on being a man who was smart and stalwart, his soul ever kind and generous.
Despite his ramrod straight spine and Resolute Lucas having taken residence, she detected a faint dullness in his eyes, a sense of despondency that wrenched at her heart.
So ironic how her past had taken so much already and now, it was yanking him from her once again. With mocking glee. This time along with the future she no longer had the strength or the option to fight for.
She didn’t dare wade into the deep morass that was the loss of Mia. That alone could bring her to her knees.
She smiled past her sadness. “All things considered, I think it’s fair to say that Mia will be staying with you.”
“Was this your plan all along?”
If only she were so diabolical.
“Partly,” she lied. “Mia helped by finding you on her own. Perfect timing considering my wedding is in a few weeks and Errol doesn’t particularly care for children, let alone temperamental teenagers.” She paused. “I only ask that you look after Angus. His entire life has been dedicated to Mia, and it would kill him if she were no longer in it.” Her voice caught. Clearing her throat, she continued, “Trust me, once he recuperates, he’ll be invaluable. Marshall called him the Mia-Whisperer.”
She wasn’t sure if he was even paying attention. He just kept glowering and fuming, his nostrils flaring with every breath.
“What was I? Your last chance at slumming it before selling yourself to the highest bidder?”
She forced back a sob.
A direct hit.
Air? Where was all the fucking air?
With one sentence, he had managed to carve out her heart, fillet it, and toss it into the nearest trash can.
Nothing less than she deserved, given the story she’d concocted on the fly.
“I…understand why you’d be angry.”
“Do you? Do you really have any idea or even care about what other people think or feel?”
