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Really, how could he? If it was me, I’d be doing everything I could to find someone before I had to marry. Unlike Damon, I doubt he’ll just coerce someone. All the Everette brothers can’t be that insane. “But you’ll?—”
“You look thirsty. I’ll get you some champagne,” Xander cuts in before I can press him further. He looks more amused than concerned.
I swallow, my mouth dry, and let him guide me back to the crowd. “Thank you.”
“Of course. I’ll always take care of my sister.”
I don’t correct him on the always.
Xander disappears into the crowd, and I inhale deeply. I’m flushed from dancing and hungry for air. It’s been so long since I’ve spun like that it’s hard to keep my balance. I reach out to steady myself, my hand connecting with a hard bicep.
I snap it back. “Oh, sorry?—”
Dread sinks deep into my gut, twisting it into nausea at Thomas’s familiar face. “What are you doing here?” My words come out barely above a whisper as fear licks up my spine. But I already know. This is his territory. I’m the one out of place.
“Now, what kind of welcome is that after all of this time? Didn’t you miss me?” He smirks, but unlike Xander’s playfulness, his cuts like glass.
I’m frozen, staring at his near black eyes before sanity descends on me, and I rip my attention away, turning to escape.
He grips my arm, tugging me toward him. “Where do you think you’re going? Don’t want to be seen with me? Are you afraid that your new husband will find out what you really are? That you’re just some used-up, dirty whore. That not even your parents care about you.” His grip tightens painfully. “You couldn’t even stay pregnant right.”
Pain lances like a knife, slicing through my gut. My lungs scream for me to breathe, but it hurts too much to inhale. With everything he did to me. Erasing who I am, raping me. It’s the miscarriage that haunts me. It’s the doctors apologizing that I’ll likely never get pregnant. It’s the absolute devastation of that loss that broke something deep inside. But I’m no longer that scared girl. He can’t control me.
“Let go of me,” I sneer, enunciating every word.
He releases his grip, but his cold smile holds me in place. “What do you think he’ll do? Do you think he’ll keep you around once he knows you’re broken? You’re ignorant, but even you have to know he needs an heir. That the entire reason he married you is to breed you like the bitch you are.”
Tears sting my eyes. I know it doesn’t matter. That it’s never been the plan, but God, does it hurt. “Leave me alone.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell him. I’ll leave him to find out just what kind of backstabbing slut you are. Just like I did,” he whispers harshly, then turns away, giving me his back as if nothing happened.
I stumble back, blinking rapidly, trying desperately to get a grip on myself. Not here. I can’t fall apart here.
Not when so many people are looking forward to my inevitable crash.
“Hey. Are you okay?” Xander asks, voice low with concern. He’s holding out a champagne flute toward me.
I take it, downing half the glass before replying. “I’m a little overwhelmed with the crowd. Is it hot in here?”
He raises a brow but doesn’t question me. “You do look a little flushed. Let’s get you back to my brother before he accuses me of making you…uncomfortable.”
He clears a path, moving effortlessly through the throng of people. Damon’s standing with two older men I don’t recognize, their faces drawn in concentration. A Black man in a double-breasted suit, his graying hair the only thing denoting his age, and a thin, prickly looking man whose face is twisted like he tasted something sour.
The second we approach, Damon’s attention is on me, a soft smile on his lips before it slips away and concern replaces it.
He separates himself from the men around him and pushes a strand of hair behind my hair. “Do you want to go?”
How does he know what I need? How does he always know?
The men behind him are still deep in conversation, neither paying attention to us. “I’m just a little light-headed from the champagne and dancing. You stay. I’ll go with Nicholas.”
“No. We go together.”
“Damon, we have the…meeting tonight,” Matthias cuts in, and I can feel Damon go rigid.
He glares at his brother, anger radiating from him. “Take my place.”
“I’m sorry, brother, but this time, you need to be there.”
