Page 120 of The Heir's Bargain

Our paths were not supposed to be aligned, not in this world and maybe not even in the next.

Our courtship was doomed from the very beginning.

Yet, when the front door slammed shut, knowing its cursed fate didn't prevent the sound from shattering a piece of my soul. It ricocheted against the walls of my ribcage, within the confinements of my body that felt too constricting, the air too close.

And there was no way the guests in the dining room had not heard the bang down the hall.

It didn't matter if I went on this mission or not. I would not be getting the promotion. Not when the actual test had been whether I had ties holding me down.

I wasn't even someone who could hold on to their ties.

And yet, that wasn't why my body collapsed the moment I could no longer see Fynn's silhouette.

It wasn't the reason why my knees hit the ground.

It wasn't why it felt like a piece of me had ripped from my body.

I couldn't give a damn about the promotion at that moment.Not when I might have just lost my best friend.

And all because I had made a bargain with a prince.

Chapter 31

FYNN

Outside the Ferrios manor, with my back pressed against the brick wall and my head tilted, I watched the sky melt. Its brilliant shades faded into a muted orange, the honeyed glow dissipating into the air.

And I waited.

At first, I stayed because I couldn't get myself to walk down the steps to the carriage. When I came outside, Lance made to move forward, but with one single shake of my head, he retreated to the driver's bench. I needed to catch my breath before I could sit in a carriage with no way of escaping the weight of everything that had transpired.

But in truth, I waited because I had foolishly hoped that Dani would chase after me. That after months of our fake-courtship-turned-real, she would have learned to stop running from her problems somewhere along the way.

Yet her footsteps hadn't followed, and the door never creaked open.

I had never questioned Dani's strength or ability, but she still doubted herself. Because through the fire bleeding through her hazel eyes, I saw the doubt burning beneath it. Although she was making the choice she thought she needed to make, it didn't mean it hurt any less. That didn't mean that a piece of me wasn’t crumbling inside.

I did not wish for Dani to betray her word. I did not want Dani to give up her career for me.

I would have never asked her that.

The mission might have been my idea, but it wasn't supposed to put more people I loved in danger. It wasn't supposed to put her in danger, as selfish as a thought as it might have been.

I would lay my life down if it meant she had a chance at happiness.

To me, Dani was everything—the light, the spark.

I did not wish for the enemy to take that from me. The Bull King had already taken too much.

If my words had insulted her, that had not been my intent. Nor had I meant to make a fool of myself. However, I hadn't known what to say when I had looked at her. I had seen so many women glare at me like she had, with anger and spite. But with Dani, that look was different.

Did she not realize that I would do anything to protect anyone in my kingdom? But more than that, that I would do anything to protect her?

But how could I protect her when Dani didn't even seem to trust me to protect her heart?

So, when the stars peeked out in the darkening sky, and the door still had not opened, I finally descended the steps, no longer wishing to be under the gods' watching eyes. I did not wish for Pontanius and Sabina to look down upon me and see that I had failed them and the kingdom they had built.

I was the prince with the cocky smile who broke hearts left and right. But who would have guessed that the heartbreaker prince would have been the one to walk away with his heart shattered into a million pieces?

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