I swallow hard, scooping the pictures off the table and walking toward her. She doesn’t move, barely breathing as I pause beside her,keeping her eyes carefully averted. I don’t look away, my expression open and hoping she hears the sincerity in my voice.
“I agreed, but—” I shake my head with a wince. “I don’t regret spending that year with you, Lily, as much of an asshole as that might make me. I don’t regret it because you opened my eyes to what life could be, and how I was letting him ruin it for me without ever fighting back.” Her shoulders tremble, but she still doesn’t look at me. “Long before our wedding day, I’d decided to break away from him. Not just because of him, but because of you. I wanted better for the family we were creating, but I needed more time.”
“You have all the time in the world now,” she utters quietly.
“No,” I shake my head. “I don’t. Please, Lily. I was never just going to hand Hi-Tech over to Donald. Not when I knew what it meant to you and Grant.”
She smiles, but it’s a defeated curve of her lips. “If only I could believe a word you’re saying. It’s too late, Declan. You made your choice a long time ago, and it was never me.”
“Don’t say that please. I won’t stop fighting for us. For you. You’re my family now, Lily, and I won’t lose you.”
It’s like she doesn’t hear me. “You know, if you’d told me about all of this before we got married, maybe we could have salvaged something.” She lets out a weak laugh that fades into a sigh. “Hell, I might even have helped you. Instead, I found out you were lying to me from the get-go. Not only that, but every single person, including Silvia, knew about it.” She looks at me then, her blue eyes blazing with a catastrophic mix of anger and devastation. “And now, thanks to all this, I find out that my father has also been lying to me for years.”
She nods her head towards the door, and I don’t argue, stepping out onto the porch, turning back to her. She stands there, clutching the edge of the door, her eyes dropping to the photos in my hand.
“Get your bitch under control,” she tells me. “I don’t need any more of her poison in my life.” There’s a thread of anger in her voice, a stark contrast from the restrained version she’s been throwing at me, and my heart skips a beat.
The door shuts with finality, and I let myself feel the desolation for aminute.
Sixty seconds, each one passing with me standing there, staring at her closed door, feeling every single drop of pain that I’d caused flowing through my veins. I’d done this, destroyed something precious because of my fear of a man who should no longer have that power over me.
But I know what I’m fighting for now.
I turn away and step off the porch, heading for my car, each step filling me with renewed determination. Lily knows everything now, the whole sordid history that has blackened the past year with her, even when she didn’t know it. She might not know every detail of my relationship with my father, but she’ll find out that I’d walk through hell to win her back, even when it means losing everything else I’d ever worked for.
CHAPTER 21
Declan
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Carter asks as I finish packing up my office, wanting a quick getaway once the fuckfest is over.
"Yes," I tell him. "It's what I've been working toward for a year, and it's the only way to get out from under his thumb."
He lifts his eyebrows. "In business, yes. But not your personal life."
I make a small noise of agreement. "Those ties are surprisingly harder to cut."
"What about Nolan and Darcy?"
"What about them?"
"Do they know about what you're planning?”
I look around, checking to make sure I haven't missed anything. "No, but they also aren't tangled up with him like I am." A heavy weight settles over my shoulders. "I was the eldest, which meant I was his heir, thetarget. They've flown under his radar for the most part."
Carter frowns, catching my wording. "For the most part?" he echoes.
"I've heard whispers he's making plans to marry Darcy off."
"You're fucking kidding me," he whisper-yells, his eyes wide. "She's only twenty-fucking-two. Who's he planning on selling her to?"
Selling is accurate."Jonathan Tibault.”
Carter's head jerks back, his face going pale and then a shocking red. "That motherfucker’s gotta be at least 60.”
"He’s 67," I say grimly. “His son is 34.” Tibault was also known for his penchant for high-end prostitutes and leaving them in less than pristine condition when he was done. "Come on, let's get this over with.”
We leave my office, finding Adam at his desk, eyes firmly on his computer and his collar adorned with a bowtie covered in...ducks? I pause next to him, squinting to make sure I'm not seeing things. "Have you been wearing that all day?" I wonder, and he looks at me questioningly.
