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There went a flicker of something in his eyes. Something that made me sure his words were a lie. I just didn’t know why. What I did know was that, if he was enough of a dick to pull that shit with me, then I’d be more than happy to walk away. I knew my worth, as little as others seemed to think of it, and I knew I was worth more than that.
“You think you’re good enough to break me? To ruin me?” I scoffed, levelling him with a fierce stare. “Don’t flatter yourself, Valk.”
Fury marred his features. “Still that delusional princess,” he said scathingly.
I kicked my head behind him and threw his arm back at him. “Walk away, Wolf, before I tell your master you’ve been a bad dog.”
Valen snarled at me, and I glared right back. He wouldn’t break me. I wouldn’t let him. I would give no one the power to break me. So, I stood my ground until he finally conceded defeat and walked away.
I’d been lying to myself the first time I’d walked away from him. Thinking I was okay with it, that I could walk away and just instantly, miraculously be over whatever insane attraction I had to him.
I knew now I was wrong. I could never walk away from Valen Kincaid.
One of us has to walk away…
Shamefully, I’d let him be the one to do it. I’d forced him to do it. I’d hung on to him long past my welcome and he was done with me and whatever sick and twisted game he was playing with me.
I told myself it didn’t matter.
I told myself it didn’t make me less just because he was an arsehole.
I told myself that I might love him – I might love him for the rest of my life – but I didn’t need him. I was Harlow fucking Vanguard, the Goddess of Saint Benedicts, and I needed no man to survive.
And, after I told myself a couple more times, I started to believe it.
Chapter Fifteen
Florence came and found me in my room later, full of drunken swagger and a false belief that I’d spent the evening being ravaged by Valen.
“You know, the Callahan Estate might not be so bad if Marco keeps making me forget about those ghosts–” Then she saw my face. “What the fuck did he do?” she sighed.
I took a breath as I sat in my window seat. It was late but the parties were still raging. I had to wonder if the adults were having as much drunken sex as the kids were. I had no doubt that Apollo was in his room, probably with a Magdalen.
“Valen set me to rights about what I am to him.”
“Ugh,” she sighed. “Why can’t that ever be said in a good way? Like, ‘he fucked me raw, ripped off Apollo’s ring, and replaced it with one of his own, and now he’s going to war for me’. Why is it always a bad thing?”
“I don’t know, Floss.”
“You seem…okay. Considering.”
I nodded. “I am okay. Considering.”
“Babe…” she said slowly as she came to sit with me. “You’re scaring me. You’re way too calm right now.”
I nodded again. “I am calm. So, what if I tasted freedom, Floss? My life is just the same as it’s always been and there’s no point wishing otherwise or fighting back. I won’t survive and I won’t thrive that way.”
“Tell me what happened,” she said kindly.
And I did. I was a little less calm at the end of it, though.
“I just… I can’t believe it,” I told her.
“I can,” she said simply, and I looked at her for an explanation. “What?” she asked. “You might not have been cheating on your prince charming, but his tame wolf sure was.”
“Valen was cheating on Apollo?” I huffed, thinking it sounded ridiculous.
“Yeah. Think about it. Apollo was off doing the dirty all this time, so he can’t be angry with you for doing the same. But Valk’s his best mate. If he knew Valk was doing his girl behind his back? Fuck, I wouldn’t want to be the lawyers involved in that divorce.”
