Page 57 of Seizing Control: Part Two

The beginning of the end...

I watch him claim his Lily so I can make her my enemy.

I need to kill every ounce of love I have for her.

It’s the only way to survive this treachery.

A betrayal of this magnitude is all-encompassing. Soul destroying. I’ve spent months working to find a way to reconcile my dark and my light, to craft a solution to my wife’s decree of different by equal. My deal with Gabriel has been pointless. The lives I’ve taken were for nought. Every precaution I took to keep them apart has proven farcical.

Lazarus came for her anyway.

He took her back while I allowed my claim to falter.

For weeks I’ve tried to plan our future.

To work out how to be a good husband.

A good dad.

A good president.

A good man.

I wanted it all—with Lazarus involved on the periphery, if at all.

But you know what they say about plans...

I planned; God laughed.

Lazarus won.

In the same way that I never dreamed Cherub would actually fall in love with me, I don’t think I ever imagined that she’d do something so wicked to me once she gave me her heart. I expected her to be chaste. To honour her refusal to choose.

But she didn’t...

Instead, she destroyed me.

Broke my spirit.

Obliterated my dreams.

I have been ruined by a duchess who has proven devoid of loyalty. A woman who set my world on fire, made me believe in love again, then forced me to accept that I am as infallible as a thirty-year-old as I was at nineteen.

My wishes are flammable.

With my wife’s love acting as the inciting spark.

“Slash?” My wife sounds shocked when Lazarus takes hold of her chin and makes her look my way. She’s shaking from head to toe, her eyes wide, shock stiffening her frame as she scans my face. There is burgeoning hope in her voice when she says, “You finally came back.”

I close my eyes to block out the sight of her smile.

She cannot keep her gaze fixed on me while Lazarus’ dick remains planted inside her.

The fact Cherub doesn’t seem to feel any remorse over her betrayal is hard to swallow, yet I force myself to ingest the bitter pill. It’s for my own good, another way to slaughter any stupid delusions that remain hidden in my heart over our future together.

Being her silver lining is one thing.

I refuse to be her cuckold.

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