Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 31800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 159(@200wpm)___ 127(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 159(@200wpm)___ 127(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
To hell with respect!
If this bastard thinks I’m just going to let him say anything, absolutely anything about my wife—
“Please just stop this.”
It’s Scarlette’s first time to speak, and silence explodes in the room at the note of pain threading through her voice.
I turn to reach for her, only to find my wife looking at Vaughn with tear-filled eyes.
“I don’t even know why you’re doing this—”
“I was an ass, Scar.”
My lips tighten at the admission. It’s the only way to keep myself from pointing out that Vaughn might have used the wrong tense. As far as I’m concerned, he’s still an ass, and the most pompous one at that.
“I know it now. I was an ass all these years, and that’s why I want to make it up to you.”
“Then why not just apologize—”
“Because it’s not enough! It shouldn’t be enough.”
A part of me wants to tell the other man to shut up. This is my jet he’s on, and my wife he’s talking to.
But the other part of me...
All it wants is what Scarlette really wants, and if letting this whole damn thing play out is what it takes for her to find that—
“Remember how I helped you through your parents’ divorce?”
Then so be it.
“Remember how I taught you to drive? How I stayed up all night helping you study for your SATs?”
But of course, I also need to cover my bases, and so I quietly inform Nadir that emotional manipulation is not admissible evidence—
“Remember how you used to bring me coffee every morning at the bakery?”
—which Arav is also just as quick to counter, as he also quietly points out to the secretary that Vaughn’s words are meant to establish a pattern of care and commitment, this being the very foundation of Sharasan marriage laws.
Damn you, old man!
“Don’t you remember how I made you blush—”
And damn you, Vaughn Fuller!
“—the first time our hands accidentally touched?”
Enough, dammit.
I’m half out of my seat, ready to haul him across this table and beat him bloody—
“You can’t just pretend those things didn’t happen, Scar. You loved me since you were sixteen.”
The words hit like a sledgehammer to my chest. My gaze snaps to Scarlette, and what I see there makes my blood turn to ice.
“You can’t just fall out of love with me like that,” Vaughn presses, leaning forward. “Not after all those years. Not after everything we shared.”
The pen in my hand snaps in half with a sharp crack that echoes through the silent room. The sound seems to bring Scarlette back to earth, and she blinks, realizing I’m staring at her.
“Is it true?” I hear myself ask.
Scarlette’s expression is distraught. “Lykan—”
“Yes or no.” Each word feels like swallowing glass. “Did you fall in love with him when you were sixteen?”
Her lips start to move, and when I realize what word it’s about to form—
No, fuck, no.
My chair hits the wall as I surge to my feet.
“I need a minute.”
I can’t fucking breathe. The air in this room is suddenly like poison to my lungs, and my chest feels like a ticking bomb. I take a step toward the door, but someone pushes me from behind—
What the—
All hell is set to break look as I look over my shoulder. I swear, I fucking swear if Vaughn was stupid enough to push me—
Scarlette?
She’s gesturing frantically to someone in front of me, and my gaze swings sharply back to the front. I want to know who she’s talking to, and—
What the hell?
It’s Nadir, quickly opening the door to the en-suite, and Scarlette is pushing me again from behind, and the next thing I know, I’m stumbling through the doorway just as I hear the distinct click of a lock engaging behind us.
I whip around, wondering if she’s lost her mind. Why the hell is she locking me inside my own en-suite?
But then I see the way her lip has started to tremble as she stares at me, and my chest nearly caves in.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Is this it then?
Is this really it?
Do you...do you believe in God, Lykan?
An eternity seemed to have past since she asked me that question.
And yet I find myself remembering it now.
And this time—
If You’re everything they say You are, please...
I want to believe in Him more.
Help me.
Because I think...my wife is about to tell me she wants a divorce, and if she does...
I know You don’t owe me anything.
I don’t think I have it in me to stop her, even if losing her kills me.
But please.
I’m all out.
I don’t know what else to say or do.
Whatever You decide, whatever Your will is—
I haven’t even finished praying when Scarlette suddenly moves, and all I can do is brace myself for rejection.
But instead I end up sucking my breath in as my wife rises on her toes to cup my face with her small hands...before covering my mouth with a kiss that tasted like her tears.