Page 105 of Darkest Deception

“No. Don’t say anything. I don’t want to hear it.” His eyes drop to the floor for a second before he looks back up at me.

He stills for a moment, watching me, his body warmth seeping beneath my freezing skin. His gaze travels from my eyes to my forehead. Lifting a hand, he runs his fingertips over the cut there, though the pain from there doesn’t compare to what my heart feels.

The upcoming betrayal, knowing I will be filing a lawsuit against him while wanting him, while being here in his arms, it breaks me.

My world is about to collapse, and I can do nothing about it.

“Why are you here, Ambrose?”

My heart sinks.

“I came to tell you the truth.”

32

“What truth?” Helia asks.

I step away from his embrace. I can’t confess my secret, knowing I will feel his body pulling from mine after this.

I would rather do it myself to save the hurt.

My eyes fall on the open-plan kitchen to my right with a counter in front of it.

I can’t look at him while I say this.

“You need to know something about me, Helia.”

I swallow, the words crumpling like a piece of paper inside of me.

“Aurora had a stalker, and it was going on for three years until four months before her wedding, she was kidnapped. She…” I blink at the ceiling, trying not to remember or think of the images in my mind.

“Everyone, including her, thought it was me who gave her location to the stalker because Dad so strategically told her that I was the one who dropped her location after asking her where she was.”

Biting my lip to stop the tears isn’t working, so I clench my hands at my sides, my nails digging into my skin.

“I did ask her where she was that day. I asked her because she was supposed to be at the dinner at our house that night, and she didn’t show up on time. She was exiting her apartment building at the time.”

That’s when I look at Helia and see him patiently looking at me.

Waiting.

But what startles me is the deep, ominous look in his eyes. He looks like he knows what I am about to say, though he won’t be able to guess it.

“Track records show that. Testimonies by everyone show that. Everything points to me.” I suck in a shaky breath, catching Helia look to the side. “Would you believe it was me, if you were to see those records?”

Helia looks back at me, his jaw ticking.

And I know the minute the look in his eyes changes.

An empty laugh trickles out of me, another tear dripping down my cheek.

Helia’s eyes track its movement down my face.

“It was my father who leaked her location. He didn’t want us in his life. He wanted a child-free life, to climb to the top. Having us, having daughters, was a big expense for someone who wanted to run up the ladder in society, to fit in the Elites, to be living lavishly. We set him back.”

My fingers grasp at the edge of my black zipped-up jumper, and my knees weaken.

“I ran from one station to another, one private investigator to another, using my own savings to find her location, to find where she was, because she was and is the first and only important person in my life.” I swallow thickly.

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