Page 172 of Tempting Fate

“You’re so full of shit your eyes have turned brown. You texted me after the concert to tell me to move on… told me that’s what you were doing, too.”

In the face of her resigned hostility, desperation starts clawing at my throat. I’ve never felt so disconnected from Lily. She’s acting like we dated for a few weeks then went our separate ways. Our love has spanned a lifetime. It’s a living and breathing entity that I believe consumes us both.

Have I really broken our bond past the point of repair?

Scrambling hard for something to break through her stoic façade, I pull out another line of bullshit. “We didn’t end. Not officially. Everyone knows text doesn’t count.”

That does it. The hair-trigger temper she’s been doing her best to control explodes. Lily balls her hands into fists and punches me with both hands. She smacks me in the chest. Splits my lip. Pummels my shoulders. Scratches at my neck. Rips my hair from my scalp.

I stand my ground and take it all.

Because while she’s hitting me, she’s also purging her soul.

“I can’t think of a more official declaration that something is over than abandoning your fiancée after they’ve been raped and beaten to the point where their body is expelling their dead baby.” The only time I flinch is when she mentions our child. For the rest of her tirade, I’m stoic. I accept her cruel words because they’re accurate. I’m guilty of everything she alleges. “You left me alone at the worst point in my life. Then you told my father that we were permanently done without even sparing me a minute of your time to talk about it... more fool me, I tried to move past that, let you touch me again, and what did you do? You fucking walked away for a second time! Even the biggest idiot on the planet—namely me—knows that means we’re over.”

Lily is breathing hard when she stops lashing out at me. She tucks her hands behind her back and leans as far away from me as she can get with a wall behind her. The look in her eyes is enough to turn gravity on its head.

Up is down. Down is up.

She’s done. The display in the bar wasn’t for me. It was for her.

My woman was declaring her freedom from me.

“Once again, you proved that you love your ego more than anything. Poor little Zeke… couldn’t handle the pain. Couldn’t take the responsibility of loving his broken metukà shelì through the bad shit. Tucked tail and ran, leaving me to get through the loss alone.”

“I thought it was for the best—I let you down.”

“You sure did,” Lily spits from between her teeth. “But not over Alex. You let me down when your pride couldn’t handle me saving myself. I killed him. He’s gone. We were free!” Her tone is brittle when she adds. “I hope you’ve suffered since then because I fucking well have.”

With her knees, she shoves me away, then pulls her skirt up under her tits. Although her legs and panties are exposed, my attention locks on her flat stomach.

“See these?” Lily gestures to the new light-pink lines on her belly. “This is just a taste of my suffering. These are only the scars on the outside.” Spreading her thighs, she turns her leg out to run a fingernail along the area where deeper cuts also streak her soft, pale flesh. “It only happened a few times… once about a week after, then twice more in the days that followed the concert. Tell me… where were you then? Oh, I know! While I was cutting to cope, you were making a deal to stay away from me in exchange for keeping your power in the club. Selling me out for your own agenda, just like Dad did.”

I reel back like she’s slapped me.

Lily laughs.

Her grin consists of canines and spite as she goes in for the kill. “Oh, you didn’t realise I knew that?”

“No one knows.”

“Well, I do. Your cloud is still synced to my laptop. After the concert, I tried to find that video we made—I wanted to see you, see us, since I couldn’t touch you—ended up serving myself a hard dose of reality instead.” I rub my tight chest when it constricts at the venom in her words. My heart isn’t beating right. To be honest, it feels like she’s shoved her hand in my chest and has ripped it out. “Imagine my surprise when I listened to the recording. Another day, another bunch of lies courtesy of Ezekiel Miles.”

“I can explain.”

Pressing the point of her stiletto to my stomach, Lily nudges me until I’m a leg’s length from her. “I don’t want your excuses. They mean nothing… not when it’s crystal fucking clear that you only want me when I have my mask of perfection in place—when you can congratulate yourself on healing me. ’Cause as soon as you lose control of the world around us, and the people we love discover that I’m a fucking mess, you’re out. It gets too hard for you. You run.”

“That’s not true.” I step to move forward.

Lily uses her sharp heel to keep me at bay.

“Doesn’t matter, anyway.” She dismisses me with a sharp look and a flick of her hand. “You broke my trust when you chose to take my father’s stupid deal instead of coming to me first. That’s what ruined us. Not Alex. Not losing the baby. It was you.”

After she slides down the dresser and back to her feet, I lurch forward and pull her against me. Although she initially stiffens in my arms, Lily slowly melts into my embrace. I nudge my nose through her hair until my mouth is level with her ear. “I’m gonna fix this.”

“Good luck. You’re going to need it ’cause there’s no coming back from this for me.”

Lily runs her nails over the shaved sides of my head then winds her fingers through the longer locks. I allow her to tip my head backward. She drags her fingers over my close-cropped beard, presses her lips to the underside of my jaw, then to my mouth.

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