Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 36268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Let her cry on Adriano’s shoulder.
Let her play victim to anyone who’ll listen.
Let her think she’s safe in her little rebellion.
Tomorrow, she’ll learn what I do to people who betray me.
Tomorrow, she’ll understand the price of those three words she wanted so badly.
The contracts are signed. The calls are made. The machinery set in motion.
She wanted to play games?
Game on.
Sienah
THE KONTIDES’ RENTAL house sits on a quiet street in Monte Carlo, nothing like the glass and marble monument to success Aivan and I call home. Called home. Past tense, Sienah. Get used to it.
My knuckles hover over the painted wood door. Six in the morning is an ungodly hour to show up anywhere, but I’ve been walking since three, and I can’t feel my feet anymore. The hem of my anniversary dress, that beautiful, stupid, hopeful dress, is torn from catching on something in the dark. Blood has dried on my knees from where I fell in the driveway.
I’m visiting the only couple who knows the truth about my marriage, but something holds me back at the last moment, and I suddenly wonder if this is right.
They’re his friends first before they were mine.
Is it really okay for me to be here?
I bite my lip in hesitation, but just when I’m on the verge of turning, the door opens, and Shayla Kontides is suddenly standing in front of me. “Sienah?” Her eyes are wide with shock, and it’s obvious by her gaze that she’s taken note of my tearstained checks.
As expected, from one half of New York’s legal powerhouse couple.
“I’m sorry, but can I—can I crash here? Just for tonight—”
She’s already pulling me in before I’m done speaking. “You can stay for as long as you want.” Her voice is warm but firm, her touch gentle but her movements brisk as she directs me up the stairs. “Showe’rs second door on the right. I’ll find you something clean.”
“Shayla?” Adriano’s voice carries from somewhere deeper in the house. “Who was—” He appears in the doorway and stops short, silver eyes taking in my state. His expression doesn’t change, but something shifts in the air. “Sienah.”
“She needs a shower and clothes,” Shayla says simply. “Coffee?”
“Already brewing.” He looks at me again. “Guest room’s ready whenever you need it.”
I’m halfway up the stairs before I realize they haven’t demanded explanations, and I wonder if it’s because they’ve been expecting this. That they’ve always known but were too nice to tell me the truth.
And that this...this was inevitable, and all these years, I’ve been waiting for a love that will never come.
Tears sting my eyes anew as the shower runs pink with blood from my knees. I stand under water hot enough to burn, trying to wash away the echo of Aivan’s voice.
I don’t love you.
Three words that shouldn’t have the power to destroy ten years, but here we are.
When I finally emerge, I find clothes laid out on the bed. Simple cotton pajama pants and a soft t-shirt that smells like lavender detergent. They’re slightly too long, Shayla has a few inches on me, but they’re clean and they’re not silk and they don’t smell like him.
Downstairs, I find them in the kitchen. Adriano reads something on his tablet while Shayla pulls a tray of croissants from the oven. The domesticity of it makes my chest ache.
“Come and take a seat,” Shayla invites me with a smile, and it feels slightly surreal to have a billionaire lawyer like Adriano to be the one to serve me coffee. I’ve only ever spent time with them in charity functions, and in every occasion, they’ve always appeared poised and very, very composed. It’s my first time to see them not wearing their legal hats, and they’re just two completely different people.
Adriano is gentler, Shayla is softer, and I just can’t help but think that this...
This was how I envisioned Aivan and I could one day be.
But I know now such dreams were never meant to come true.
“Sienah?”
Just hearing Shayla, who can make the most heinous of evildoers shake in their feet during cross examination, say my name so softly is my undoing, and already I can feel my face starting to crumple.
“I’m s-so sorry,” I choke out. “I just didn’t know where else to go—”
“You don’t have to explain anything.” Sienah reaches across the table to squeeze my hand. “I just want you to know you’re safe with us. Okay?”
“But Aivan—”
“Eusebio called us.”
My eyes widen. Why would Eusebio, the Cannizzaros’ chief of security, call him?
“He’s let us know it would be appreciated if we were to have you as our guest. But that’s already a given even if he hadn’t called.”
“But Aivan—”
“If you don’t want to speak with him just yet,” Adriano said quietly, “we’ll make sure he understands that you’ve asked for time.”
Shayla gives my hand another squeeze. “You’re our friend, too, Sienah. And we meant it when we said you’re safe with us.”