AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I leave the conversation there. I’m not about to force her to face her trauma. I know what that can do to a person.
81
ILARION
I drive through the gates of the Diamond and park behind Dima. Mila and I are just walking into the house when Dima skids to a stop at the head of the staircase. His eyes are wide with panic.
“I just went in to check on Archie, to prep him for our talk. But…he’s not there.”
My spine goes rigid. “Taylor?”
Dima just shakes his head.
Mila turns and rushes back out of the house to convene with security. I race upstairs. Dima follows me back to Taylor’s room.
Her scent still lingers in the air, but it’s already fading. It won’t last much longer. As my heart pounds harder and harder against my ribs, I check the closet for any trace of what might’ve happened.
Her black duffel bag is gone.
“Fuck,” I growl. “Fuck!”
I’m standing in place in the closet, fists knotted and shaking, when Mila surges into the room a moment later. “He took down three guards,” she says. “They left through the south gate.”
“Celine?” I ask Dima.
“I checked on her. She’s still in the medical wing. Asleep when I got there.”
“They left her behind?” Mila gasps.
“No.” I turn toward the window. In the distance, I can just make out the glow of the Bellasio blazes. “No, neither Archie nor Taylor would have willingly left her behind. Celine chose to stay.”
Mila frowns. “Archie wouldn’t have protected you. He would have told both of them who he was—the connection between the two of you. He would have told Celine why you chose to propose to her in the first place.”
I nod and give the only explanation that makes any sense: “She doesn’t care.”
I badly miscalculated everything. This whole goddamn mess started with a simple oversight and one slip of a miscalculation. Now, the wrong woman is in my house pledging blind loyalty to me while the perfect woman of my dreams is lost in the wind.
“But Taylor…” Dima says. “Taylor cared.”
“Taylor’s not thinking of me.” I say that, but something deep inside refuses to believe it. Dares to say itknowsnot to. “She’s thinking only of Celine.”
And how Celine will react when she finds out about our baby.
That’s when I punch a hole through the closet wall. “Fuck!”
“Ilarion,” Mila intervenes, moving into my line of vision, “it might not be too late.”
I think about it for a split second. Should I let Taylor martyr herself despite what she really wants?
Or should I find her, drag her back and force her to accept what she really wants?
Taylor told me that to love someone is to let them go. But no one ever taught her what I learned years ago: that loving someone means allowing them to face their demons. Love is doing what’s best for the other, even at the risk of destroying that love in the end.
Andgod-fucking-dammit, I love her.
So there’s only one thing I can do.
“Find her.”
TO BE CONTINUED
