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I watch as his throat bobs, and he slowly pulls himself together. I stand transfixed as the change comes over his body. His shoulders rising and every line in his body going rigid. “You had no intention of staying with any of us, did you, Mia? You were going to make us all agree to share you, fall at your feet and then leave us to marry whoever Stella decided would benefit her.”
My eyes shut tightly as I force the sob that wants to escape my throat back down. I nod my head and then open my eyes back up to witness my words’ effect on him. At this point, I’m hurting myself and decimating my heart right along with his. I knew that was my fate the minute I made the deal with Stella.
I could have never had a future where I got to stay here in Casbury with them. I could never have kept all four of them. Stella’s terms were clear; she kept them safe and protected Carter for my future. I agreed to it, knowing that there was no turning back from that point onwards. Stella will not be denied. A Stratford always wins.
“Well, hopefully, Diego will beat Stella to the finish line. Then you can feel what’s it like to be left discarded and broken when he marries you for your name and power but continues to fuck your sister on the side.” He turns on his heels and steps towards the door.
“Theo, please. You know I care for you.”
“No, Mia. I know you own me, just like Stella owns you. I wish you had never come back here.” Then he opens the door and slips out of the room.
I stand there in complete shock, unmoving, the tears pouring out of my eyes and drenching the front of my shirt as the sobs I swallowed down refuse to be silenced and rack my body. The sounds I’m making are loud and pitiful.
Did I just lose him? What have I done?
“Mia, what the hell has happened, girl?” Raegan runs into the room and wraps her arms around me. I can’t hold back any longer. My heart is breaking into fragmented pieces in my chest.Why didn’t I tell him what he wanted to hear? Why didn’t I say that I love him? I know that I fucking do. Why was it so hard to give him what he wanted?
“Rae…they know.” I wrap my arms around her petite frame and cry into her shoulder.
Chapter 42
Finn
“Remorse is the pain of sin.” Theodore Parker
Theostormsintothemedia room where Carter and I are lounging around, waiting for word about Mateo and June. He’s been agitated since even before we found Mateo, but right now, he looks completely undone. His face is red with rage, and there is a giant red lump on his forehead. Shit, have Mia and him once again gone to blows with each other? Seriously I never met two people that love to hate fuck each other more than those two.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s hot as fuck to watch them go at it. Witnessing how he controls and possesses her when passion is riding her hard. The way she fights him, never letting him completely control her. I hate that the girl I love and one of my best friends must constantly bring each other to that breaking point to coexist.
“We need to talk fuckers.” He stops before us, and Carter cranes his neck up from his prone position, dropping his phone at his side. I trail my eyes up and down Theo’s form to see if there is more evidence that he went to blows with Mia. The desire to rush out of the room, and search for her, wrapping her toned body in my arms, instantly fills me.
“What the fuck happened to you?” I stand quickly and move towards him, but he steps back when I reach for the lump on his head.
“Mia knows.” Theo’s shoulders slump forward, and his body deflates, a lone tear escaping down the side of his chiseled cheek and running down the side of his hard-clenched jaw. I watch as my tough-as-nails friend falls apart in front of me, and it brings an unsettling feeling to my mind.
“What do you mean she knows? We agreed not to say anything until Mateo was back and we could make a decision together.” Carter pushes his body into a standing position, his arms grabbing Theo’s shoulders and shaking him roughly.
“What have you done?” The words leave my lips with dread.
“What I had to do. What all four of us will have to do if we love her.” He’s making no sense, his words tumbling from his lips and causing fear to skate down my spine.
“Motherfucker, did you hurt her again?” Carter’s fingers wrap around Theo’s throat, tightening and causing his face to go red with the strain of lack of oxygen. Theo doesn’t fight back; he stands there, allowing Carter to hurt him. What-the-ever-loving-fuck has he done?
I need to stop Carter before he kills him or before they end up coming to blows that neither one of them will return from. Hesitation fills me momentarily, though, the same need to cause him harm if he hurt Mia again filling my veins. God fucking damn it! The reckless asshole has ruined us.
I yank Carter back, wrapping my arm around his neck and forcing him to release Theo. A large gasp leaves Theo’s lips as he sucks in much-needed oxygen into his lungs. “Whatever you have done, fucking fix it, Theo, or I swear to you; it won’t only be Carter beating your ass.”
“I can’t.” He swipes his hands down his face in irritation at the tears that have made their way out of his eyes. He hates weakness, even in himself.
“You are not making any sense. Mia knows that we have figured out she’s Amelia. You told her we knew?” I watch as his head drops between his shoulders, and his hands clench into tight fists in front of his chest, which is still laboring for breaths. “Why in the hell would you do that?”
“We can’t protect her. Don’t you see that this will never be over? He will keep coming for her here. We need her to leave Casbury and go back to….”
“NO!” Carter shouts, not letting Theo finish his sentence before he shoves him hard in the chest. “You don’t get to decide to take her away from us. She doesn’t only belong to you, Theo. She’s fucking mine too. SHE’S OURS!” He shouts, spittle leaving his lips and his husky blue eyes furious.
“He will kill her, Carter. He won’t stop until he has her. Do you not understand that? It doesn’t matter which one of us he takes, tortures and tries to kill; his goal is her.” Theo shakes his head. “She’s all I ever wanted. Don’t you think it’s killing me to know I have to let her go?”
I step away from both these raging idiots, raking both my hands over my short hair and trying to think clearly, and logically. Some part of me knows he’s right. As long as he’s alive, Vincent will never stop coming for Mia. She’s his ultimate sick goal. It won’t matter which one of us stands in his way. He will torture us to get to her. We don’t have the manpower or the resources to protect her the way her family does. Even with Diego and Manuel’s protection, Vincent still managed to get his hands on Mateo. We don’t have a way to hunt him down and kill him either; the psycho is evading everyone.
