Page 54 of A Monster Is Coming

“We’re going to be married,” I said.

“I know.” She pressed her lips together. “I don’t want to be married to you. I don’t want to have anything to do with you, but I also know I don’t have a choice.”

“This is for your safety,” I said.

“You know, I was falling in love with you,” she said. “I thought you and I could have a future but that’s all a lie. There is no way you and I could have any future now.”

This time, I moved and took a seat beside the bed. “Why?” I asked.

“Because it was all a lie.”

“The names were a lie, the gym, I’m not a personal trainer. Everything else I told you wasn’t a lie. I did own that house. It is mine,” I said.

“What about running away with me, traveling?”

“That wasn’t a lie.”

“Did you have feelings for me?” Niamh asked.

“I don’t do feelings,” I said.

This made her laugh.

“I don’t know what love is.” I wouldn’t go into details as to the type of man I’d become. There was no point in that. Staring at Niamh, I knew I’d caused her a lot of pain.

“You know, I had always wished for a man to love me for me. Who wanted no one else but me. Who wanted to grow old with me.”

“I will be that man,” I said. “I just don’t do love.”

Tears fell down Niamh’s cheeks. I was breaking her heart and there was nothing I could do about it.

“We don’t have a choice, do we?” she asked.

“No”

She nodded. “Then I guess you and I are getting married.”

Chapter Fourteen

Niamh

One Month Later

I’m no longer Niamh Byrne.

Nope.

Staring down at my wedding band as I sat on the toilet, trying to avoid the wedding reception, I’m Niamh Byrne-Orlov. At Ivan’s insistence, I was to keep my last name and just add that touch of Peter. Peter didn’t argue. Neither did I. There was no point.

I was at a wedding where I didn’t know a single wedding guest. I’d not invited any of my family because in the past month, my mom had phoned five times, attempting to lure me away from Peter’s home.

My father wanted me back in his care, but he had no intention of caring for me. I saw that now. The only reason Finn had ever come around was because of the inheritance, which I’d not been aware of. I couldn’t help but wonder if my mom knew the truth. I doubted it, because she would have found some way to use me to get money for herself.

That was all it was about with my family—money and power.

The sound of feminine giggles filled the bathroom, but I didn’t go out to join them. Ivan had helped me choose my bridesmaids. They had been the wives of the other Brigadiers. I had only met them a couple of times. All three of them seemed nice, so too did a woman who asked me to call her Butcher.

Again, I was not going to question it.

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