Twisting to fully face me, the words that come out of her mouth next cut me straight to the core. “I don’t want you, Zane. I don’t want to be with you, and the more you push me to do something I don’t want to do, the more I’ll push back. I want you to leave and not come back. I want you to forget about me and move on. I don’t want to be with you. I’m not in love with you.” Her expression is skewed, but her eyes tell me she is lying.
“You’re lying, you love me. I’ve protected you your whole life. You need me just as much as I need you.”
“I never asked you for any of that. I didn’t even know you were there most of that time!” I turn away from her, but she gets up from her seat and gets in front of me, so I have to look at her face. “Maybe I needed you before, but that’s because I thought you were all I had. I thought all my family was dead, but my father is alive, and he loves me. I don’t need you anymore.”
“Shut up,” I yell, stepping closer. Close enough to where she has to lift her head to look into my face.
“Just go, Zane. Don’t make this even harder than it already is. Just go...”
“I will never leave you. Never!” I grab her upper arm and hold her in front of me. I want to shake some sense into her. I want to make her understand, see how wrong this is.
“Let go of me,” Dove demands, her voice on edge, but that only makes me hold onto her tighter. I feel like if I don’t, she might disappear forever, slip away, and never return to me.
“Take your hand off of her,” one of the guards growls.
Turning to him, I snap, “She is mine, I touch her wherever and however I want.”
“I’m not yours!” Dove yells and shrugs out of my hold. Just when I thought this whole situation couldn’t get any worse, Dove says something that will haunt me for a very long time. “I don’t know how much clearer I can make it. I don’t want or need you. I don’t love you, and I want you to leave and never come back.” Before I can respond, she drives in the final nail. “Guards, please make him leave the house and don’t let him come back.”
“Dove! You can’t be serious?”
She backs away from me, moving out of reach. I try to take a step forward, reaching out my arms to her, but the two guards are already on me, pulling me back. I start to fight them, throwing punches at anything and everything I can reach. More men pile into the library, trying their best to get me under control.
I’ve lost count of how many men are fighting me, five or six… All I know is that I can’t let them win, I can’t let this happen. If I leave now, Dove will be all alone. I won’t be able to protect her from the outside.
I’m vaguely aware of Dove’s voice in the background, asking them not to hurt me. I almost laugh in the midst of all of this. They could throw acid on me, and it wouldn’t hurt as bad as the pain she is putting me through herself.
By the time the men have managed to shove me out of the room, my arms are worn out, and my muscles sore. I’m still healing from my last injuries, and I’m not at my strongest, but I can’t just give up either. So, I keep fighting them, even when everything hurts, even when my chest aches so much I think it might have cracked wide open. Even then, I keep fighting because right now, that’s the only thing I have left.
41
Zane’s face as the guards forced him off the property, still haunts me and it’s been days. The despair, the burning rage, and the way he yelled my name, telling me I didn’t mean it. I can still feel the sadness. It’s suffocating. I carried his heart in my hands. He gave me the one thing he’d never give anyone else, and I took it and crushed it. No matter what I do, I can’t forget. I can’t unfeel the pain I’ve caused.
In my father’s presence, I play the perfect daughter, a smile painted on my lips at all times. But behind closed doors, within the four walls of my room, I’m a blubbering mess, it’s like I’ve lost a piece of myself by letting him go.
Pressing the heels of my palms into my eyes, I will the tears away. I have to get it together. I have to. There is no other way to do this. It was either let him go or watch him die, and I’d rather have him hate me for a short time, thinking that I really didn’t want him, than to never have a future together.
Sucking a sharp breath into my lungs, I nearly jump off the bed when a knock echoes through the room.
Shit! I can’t let anyone see me like this. Matteo is expecting it, waiting, watching in the shadows for me to slip up. At the first sign of weakness, he’s going to pounce, so it’s better not to give him a reason to jump at all. Taking another calm breath, I clear my throat and then speak.
“Yes?”
The knob twists, and the door opens. Laura, one of the maids, pops her head into the room, and I almost sigh in relief. Thank god. Since my father found out about me kicking Zane to the curb, he’s been pushing Alberto and I together more.
He’s even moved the wedding date up, and since I don’t plan to marry Alberto, I’ll have to make good on the next step in my plan soon.
“Ms. Castro, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but your father wanted me to let you know that the stylist will be here soon to prepare you for the engagement dinner.”
“Oh, yes. Thank you, send them up whenever they arrive.” I give her a smile, which she returns before slipping out of the room and closing the door quietly. Given my fake breakup with Zane, my emotions have been on edge and my mind, of course, elsewhere, so much so that I nearly forgot that the engagement party was today.
Matteo invited everyone far and wide and decided that having it here at the house was the best choice. It would give everyone a chance to see how rich and powerful we were. At least, that’s what he told me. I agreed mainly because disagreeing wasn’t an option. I finally have him on my side and eating right out of the palm of my hand. He’s already been more lenient with me. Letting me walk around the house, spend the day in the library, even letting me walk outside in the garden on my own.
I won’t mess this up. I didn’t hurt Zane for nothing. I did this for him, for us. Now, I just have to figure out how to escape… the wheels in my head start turning. Tonight. I’ll make my move tonight. Matteo will be too focused on the guests to notice if I go missing, plus, with all the traffic in and out of this place, I’ll have enough of a distraction.
My lips turn up into a sly smile. My heart may be broken, but it won’t be forever. I’ll make this right.
Two hours of hair and makeup later, and I’m finally getting into the strapless red piece that Matteo picked out for today. It’s tight and shows off my breasts and slim waist. I can barely breathe in the damn thing. Looking in the mirror at my reflection, I’m tempted to take it off. I hate it, hate it so much because all it’s going to do is draw unwanted attention. I don’t want everyone staring at me, watching me, whispering about me as I pass by them. My snowy-white skin looks even paler, and though my hair and makeup is pure perfection, the rest of me just looks blah. Then there’s the fact that Zane isn’t here tonight. I’m lost without him, like a broken compass that doesn’t know its way.