I don’t say a word.
“Oh my God.” She covers her mouth, tears gathering in her eyes. “I was bait. For your enemies—for your revenge.”
“It wasn’t supposed to go like this.”
“But it’s true, isn’t it?!” she cries out. “That’s why you put me under contract, why you had me go out with you?—”
“Mia—”
“—why you wanted the whole world to think I was your girlfriend, why you asked me tomarryyou?—”
“That’s not true,” I snarl. “I asked you to keep you safe. It was the only way I could think of to protect you. To have you and Eli live with me.”
It’s the wrong thing to say.
Mia falls silent. There’s heartbreak in her eyes, and it kills me to look at it. To face the consequences of everything I’ve done.
“You said you loved me,” she accuses.
“I—”
“You didn’t mean it.” Her free hand curls on her thigh, nails digging deep. “You just wanted to clean your conscience. All that talk about adopting my son—that was just to get me to say yes, wasn’t it?”
“That’s not?—”
“He thought you were gonna be his father. That we were going to befamily.”
“We can still be that.” I’ve never begged in my life, but right now, it fucking feels like it. “We can still?—”
“You used him!” she seethes. “You usedme.Just like Brad did.”
I reach out to her?—
And she flinches away from me.
“Don’t touch me,” she hisses. “Don’t you dare fucking touch me again.”
“Mia, I?—”
“Here.” She slips the engagement ring off her finger and hurls it on the ground. “Keep it. And keep your money, too. I’m done.”
The sirens become deafening. Within seconds, paramedics are rushing through the garden, hauling Kallie onto a stretcher.
Mia says something to them. Moments later, she’s climbing into the back of the ambulance and pulling Maksim along with her.
“Mia, stop,” I growl. “We’re not done talking.”
“Yes, we are.”
“I—”
“Goodbye, Yulian.”
Then the doors slam shut.
63
MIA
