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“I don’t like that. Of all of us, Marco deserves to be happy,” Elias says.
I lean on the wall, my legs threatening to buckle, and I can feel tears stinging my eyes.”
I was making him happy… wasn’t I?
“I don’t either, brother. I don’t like it a damn bit. He deserves better and so does Helena.”
“All arranged marriages have bumps,” Elias reasons. “Maybe they will end up finding happiness.”
End up finding happiness. End up, finding fucking happiness. I was such a fool. I thought we were happy.
“Maybe,” Gio allows. “If Helena doesn’t find out the man that she wants pities her. I admit I don’t know her that well, but she doesn’t seem like the type of girl to accept pity. She doesn’t seem. like the kind of girl to accept pity.
Pity? Those tears that are stinging my eyes nearly kill me with the need to release them, but I realize that’s not it. They’re already falling. It’s the pain that is crippling me. I back away from the terrace. Thinking about all the things that Marco has told me since I moved here.
He was going to protect me. He was going to make sure my father never got the chance to hurt me again. He wasn’t even going to let him pay for the wedding.
Oh God. That’s when I take off running back to my bedroom. As I get inside with the door closed—and locked—I realize, it’s not my bedroom. I have nothing here. My legs give out. My weight is held up by the door and that doesn’t work. I slowly sink down until my ass hits the floor, the sobs racking through my body.
It was all a lie.
Chapter 23
Marco
I’m fucking exhausted. I was supposed to be home early so Helena and I could go to dinner and then check into the hotel in town. This did not go as planned since the demolition crew had trouble obtaining one. Of the permits needed. That means I had to wade in. This also meant that a meeting that was supposed to over midday, extended and didn’t finish until about twenty minutes ago. I need to get my ass in the shower, clean up and take my woman out for sustenance. After that, I was going to take her back to the hotel and fuck her until we both couldn’t move. That was the extent of my plans, but I thought they were damn good ones.
“Ena,” I called. “Did you get your stuff boxed up today? The boys are going to load it up early in the morning, baby. They’re going to bring what you want to the hotel and then put the rest in our storage container.”
Silence.
“Princess?”
I open the door to our room and it’s empty. When I say empty, I mean she’s not here. Her presence can’t be felt. I frown. I sent her a text and told her there was a permit hold up and the meeting would take longer than expected. I also told her be ready when I got there, and we’d go out for a bite before getting to the hotel. She didn’t respond, which was odd, because she always does. I didn’t think a lot about it though. We’re good. We’re solid. She probably didn’t get the text. Service is not the best sometimes, and she went on to the hotel without me. I will have to speak to her security detail for not reporting that shit.
First, I need to get a move on. I paid a fuck-load of money to get the utility department to cut power to this damn place tonight. I want those beautiful wrecking balls outside to bring this motherfucker down tomorrow. We’ll burn what can burn and the hell with the rest of it. They can cart it out of here in large dump trucks. I don’t give a fuck as long as I don’t have to see it anymore. Helena gave me the freedom to do what I truly wanted. She knew I hated keeping the house—even if it did make sense to do so. She also came up with a plan which would make our home a home for all of my brothers as well as us. I like it. I like knowing that asshole that donated his sperm for our existence, but gave us nothing but shit afterwards, would rot in hell with the twins—offspring that somehow inherited every vile cell the bastard had in his body. I loved knowing while the three of them rotted, my real family, would thrive and grow stronger.
I look around the room. She obviously went to the hotel without me. Disappointing. I take a breath, inhaling the scent of her perfume. I take it into my lungs deeply, letting it calm me and wash away the stress of the day—just like it always does. I walk slowly to the bed, undoing my tie, then unbuttoning my shirt.
