Page 68 of Fierce Monarch

Out. I need out.

“Good.” I stood, nodding Greyson to the door. If I didn’t leave the room, I was going to lose it. “We’ll let you say goodbye. Be safe, Lucia.”

As we headed for the front door, I heard Lucia’s whispered apology. “I thought she knew.”

Dominic’s silence was its own answer. Yeah, I should’ve.

I shoved open the front doors like I was breaking out of jail, sucking in huge lungfuls of air, even when I looked the epitome of calm. God bless Mario’s training; it was stupidly useful. Grey kept pace with me, eyes wary and sharp as he took in every shaking leaf around us while we moved.

“Do you think I’m destined to pick men who lie to me?” I asked, wincing at my tactlessness. Turning, I grabbed Greyson’s hand. “I’m sorry.”

His fingers swallowed mine, squeezing in that easy comfort that made my eyes prick with tears. “I understand, reina, and no, I don’t think so. I think the men you choose need to strive to be better.”

“Even you?”

His lip quirked, but it was tinged with sadness. “Especially me.”

I didn’t ask if he’d known about the marriage pact because it wasn’t his responsibility to tell me even if he did. It was Dominic’s or Antoni’s or my father’s. Grey wasn’t innocent, but he wasn’t in the hot seat either.

That was all on my other boyfriend.

Leaning against the town car, I let the wind ruffle my hair and sweep my thoughts away. We waited there until Dominic came outside, leaving his mother in the house. I slid into the back seat, hating that because our focus was stealth, I couldn’t sit in the front. I needed space to get my head on straight and to see if that piercing pain in my heart was something we could even fix.

Dominic came after me, laying his hand on my thigh. “Mari.”

I moved as far away as I could, desperate to keep some distance between us. Touching him hurt when I couldn’t even look at him. He’d lied to me for years, and I honestly didn’t know if I had any more grace to give him. My head was so jumbled, and my heart was already a bleeding, torn-up mess. This wasn’t something else I was prepared to endure. I needed to heal, not hurt.

“Not right now, Dominic.”

“Baby, please—” He reached for me again, and I slapped his hand away, even as it killed me to do it.

Looking at him, I felt like we were the only people in the world. There was no Grey, no Lucia, no Cash. Just me and my lying partner. Christ. “Don’t touch me. I asked for no lies, and you gave them to me anyway.”

“I know.” He swallowed, looking at where his hands sat limp in his lap. “I just didn’t want to lose you over something we couldn’t control. I was selfish and wrong, and I’m sorry.”

“You should be.” I saw those three words land, and it did nothing to soothe the ache. In fact, it made it worse. I hated him and I loved him, and I didn’t know which one was going to win in the end. The entire situation was a special kind of purgatory for me.

Turning to the window, I gave him my back before my pain made me lash out in more permanent ways. “I’m not interested in talking. Leave me alone until I’ve wrapped my head around this.”

From then on, everyone gave me a wide berth. In the car, on the tarmac, in the airplane. Hell, even the flight attendants were wary to offer me anything. I couldn’t blame them. No doubt I looked fit to kill, and Dominic’s moroseness was oozing through the cabin. Only Grey was acting normal, and he was glued to my side, a silent sentry.

Normally, I’d head to the gym to work out my frustrations, but by the time we made it back to the Celestine, I was exhausted. Opening the door, I felt both men on my heels, ready for whatever I needed. Dominic because he wanted to make things better, Greyson because he knew I wasn’t doing well. “I need to sleep,” I said, moving down the hallway to my room.

“I’ll come with you.” Dominic followed on my heels, and I felt my hackles rising the closer we got to my space. Blocking the door with my body, I glanced up at him. “No.”

His face was the picture of regret and surprise. “You’re pushing us out again?”

“No, Dominic. Just you.” I ignored the wounded look and pushed the door open farther, raising an eyebrow at Greyson. He didn’t hesitate to slide into the gap, taking over with Dominic as I went to shower the airplane funk off me.

Proving he knew me best, Grey left me alone to wallow in my shower. I scrubbed myself raw, trying not to fall into the fatalistic mentality I always did, but the hurt festered. It clung to the wound that Nate’s treachery left and dug its claws in.

Was this it for Dominic and me? Would I ever be able to trust him again?

Did he think the lying was worth it?

I wouldn’t know until I talked to him, but that was tomorrow’s problem. I needed to regroup; I needed to remember that Dominic’s actions weren’t my fault, and I knew just the person to help me see that.

I felt a thread of something inside me, something that had been there for a while, slowly picking up steam. It felt like inevitability, fate. A piece of me screaming for its match. For home. And the louder it got, the more necessary it felt to act. To move. To do.

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