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Ten interminable minutes later—that damn elevator moved at the speed of a snail on morphine—I exited the building, my skin clammy and my heartbeat spiking with sudden, indescribable panic.
I didn’t know how, but I knew with bone-deep certainty Vivian was at home instead of her office.
My apartment was only five blocks away. Walking was faster than taking a car, though not necessarily safer. I was so distracted by the dread leaking into my stomach I almost got mowed down twice, once by a foul-mouthed bike messenger and once by a cab taking a corner too fast.
By the time I entered the cool, air-conditioned foyer of my penthouse, my mouth tasted like pennies and a thin sheen of sweat misted my skin.
I shouldn’t be this twisted over the fact Vivian might’ve overheard me talking with her father. Everything I’d said had been the truth, and she would find out sooner or later. Hell, I’d been bracing myself for this moment since Paris.
But there was a difference between theory and reality. And the reality was, when I stopped in the doorway of our room and saw her open suitcase on our bed, I felt like I’d been sucker punched in the gut and dragged over hot coals, all in the space of two minutes.
Vivian walked out of the closet with an armful of clothes. Her steps halted when she saw me, and a painful, breathless silence stretched between us before she moved again.
She dumped her clothes on the bed while I watched, my heart pounding hard enough to bruise.
“Were you going to leave without telling me?” Roughness edged my question.
“I’m doing you a favor.” Vivian didn’t look at me, but her hands shook as she folded and packed her clothes. “I’m saving you from a hard conversation. I heard you, Dante. You don’t want me here. Youneverwanted me here. So I’m leaving.”
There it was. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. She’d learned the truth, and this was her way of dealing with it.
My hands fisted.
She was right. Shewasdoing me a favor. If she left, no questions asked, she’d sever the last tie I had to the Laus with little to no effort on my part. I could wipe my hands clean of her family and move on.
And yet…
“That’s it? After eight months, after finding out what your father did…”And what I did… “That’s all you have to say?”
Vivian finally looked up. Red rimmed her eyes, but fire flashed in the brown depths.
“What do you want me to say?” she demanded. “Do you want me to ask what my father had on you? To ask whether the past two months meant anything, or if you were just trying to make the most out of a shitty situation until you could get rid of me? Do you want me to tell you howdevastatingit is to find out your father is…is…” Her voice broke. She turned away, but not before I glimpsed the tear streaking down her cheek.
My chest crushed like ice beneath a speeding truck.
“Do you know how it feels to learn your fiancé was only with you because he wasforcedinto it? To think we were actually getting closer when you secretly hated me? Not that I blame you.” She let out a bitter laugh. “If I were in your position, I would hate me too.”
It took every ounce of effort to swallow past the lump in my throat.
“I don’t hate you,” I said, my voice low.
I’ve never hated you.
No matter what Vivian did, or who she was related to, I could never hate her. It was the one thing I hated aboutmyself.
“Your father had…incriminating photos of my brother.” I didn’t know why I was explaining. She’d made it clear she didn’t care, but I kept talking anyway, the words falling out faster the more she packed. “He would’ve died if they landed in the wrong hands.”
I told her about the backups, her father’s ultimatum, and his insistence I keep her in the dark about the blackmail. I told her about the Paris call and even how I figured out there were eight copies of the evidence.
When I finished, her skin was two shades paler than when I’d started. “And my father’s company?”
A lengthy silence pervaded the space.
That was the one part I’d left out. An important part, but one that made my heart pinch when I finally said,
“I did what I had to do. No one threatens a Russo.”
My gaze fixed on Vivian while she processed my reply. The air crackled with a thousand tiny stinging wasps on my skin.
