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“How many times are you going to ask me that? I told you we’re married.”
He shakes his head, then bounces the ball in my direction. I catch it and dribble several times before shooting from the foul line.
“Then let me ask you a better question. Have you lost your damn mind?”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
He scoffs. “You blackmailed a woman into marrying you, andI’mthe dramatic one?” He catches the ball as it falls through the net, and chest passes it to me.
“When you put it like that,” I say low enough that he can’t hear. “It was a business decision.”
His frown deepens. “Signing a contract with another company to expand distribution is a business decision. This is a marriage.”
His questioning stokes anger in my gut.
“I know what I’m doing.”
“Do you?”
I glare at him.
He lifts an eyebrow, unaffected by my anger.
He lets out a wry chuckle. “The man who swore he’d never fall in love or get married–”
“Who said anything about love? This marriage is about–”
“Yeah, yeah. Business,” he mocks. “Didn’t she lie to you? You, who have trust issues up the wazoo. She lied to you, and instead of tossing her out of your company on her ass and suing her to hell and back, you put a ring on her finger.”
A muscle in my jaw ticks. “She did it to protect her niece,” I say louder than intended. A few guys playing on the opposite end of the court look in our direction. I ignore them.
“She has an eleven year old to protect. That motherfucker threatened Eve.” Fury laces my tone as I think about Dean threatening a child. I hate that Riley lied and manipulated her way into my life, but ultimately, I can respect why she did it, if nothing else.
She’s the only family I have.
I know how deeply she loves that little girl.
Diego looks me up and down, then nods. “Family is everything.” There’s a shift in his tone as if he gets it too.
I swallow. “She did try to tell me the truth,” I add. I just found out before she could tell me.
“But do you trust her?”
My heart knocks against my chest from that question.
“What does trust have to do with anything?”
He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “Only you would ask something like that.”
“I’m serious. This marriage is about revenge. Trust doesn’t need to factor into that. I’ll uphold my end of our agreement, and she’ll do her part.” The words sound like bullshit even as they come from my mouth.
Trust has never come easy for me. Finding out Riley lied initially made me furious enough that I couldn’t see straight. But seeing that photo of Dean on Eve’s campus, hearing the desperation in that voicemail she left me, and realizing the lengths she’s gone through to give her niece a safe home…
My ‘trust is irrelevant to this marriage’ feels more like something else. Maybe the opposite of that statement.
“I had a dream,” I confess to Diego after a few beats of silence.
He narrows his eyes before his eyebrows pop. “One of those dreams?”
