Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“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.
18
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.