Page 44 of Broken Bonds

I felt like shit. I did, not only because I had lost the opportunity to expand my horizons and with it my business, but also bruising his ego.

“It’s not about that, Lionel,” I said softly as he approached me, moving like a hunter. “I’m happy being your wife, but I also want to be my own person, with my own goals and ideas. Do you remember what that is? Do you remember what it is like to dream and make those plans come true?”

Lionel grabbed my arms tight. I was sure that his grip would leave a mark on my skin, but I decided to embrace the pain. Offering it up as a bargaining chip, I needed him to listen to me.

“And it is in your best interest to remember you are mine.”

Chapter 15

You should remember…

Those words are like a detonator that brings me back to reality.

“Noooooooo!” My screams fill the otherwise silent house like a fire truck siren, my voice sounds panicked. I’m not sure he heard me, but that’s all I can do. My hands tremble causing the phone to drop on the counter.

What is this shit?

“What happened?” he asks me as he returns to the kitchen, his eyes looking me up and down, looking for an injury. “Stella?”

My face says it all, I’m breathing fast and my legs are barely holding me up. It’s a mystery how I didn’t have a heart attack considering the speed with which my heart is beating.

“Stella, is something wrong?” Lionel comes closer and takes me by the shoulders, his thumbs stroking over my shirt. “Hvezda?”

I want him to leave me alone again, to go away. He’s the one playing this evil game, he’s confusing me and messing with my sanity. The best thing is for me to leave, to return home. Lionel can arrange our divorce without any problems. I would sign anything to return to the tranquility of my old life.

“Stella,” he insists, shaking me a little. “What’s happening?”

“The phone…” Those words leave my lips in a shaky whisper. That should be enough.

Lionel takes the device off the counter. His eyes widen when he realizes what’s in there, using his fingers to move around the screen and take a closer look.

“What’s your game?” I ask when the air fills my lungs again, he sets the phone aside and takes me back in his arms. “Why are you doing this?”

I move, trying to break free from him, but his strong hands are on my back, and he won’t let me go. A thousand thoughts cross my mind, but none of them seem logical, all of them are too crazy to consider, they have to be. I’ve fallen into Stella’s Crazyland, the only thing missing is that hatter and for the rabbit to appear.

This joke isn’t funny, and I want it to end right now.

“Listen to me,” he says in a low voice, but his tone is authoritative. “Of course I didn’t send that message, that’s not my email address. The-Lionel-Kral, that’s definitely not my account.”

He removes a hand from my back to find something in the pocket of his jeans, then passes me his phone with the email application open for me to take a look at.

“That doesn’t mean anything. You could have sent it from your computer or entrusted one of your many employees to do it.”

That’s one of the theories spinning in my head, like a tornado about to lift me off the ground.

I push on his chest, urging him to release me, I’m willing to hit his shoulder—the place where he was injured—to get out.

“Let me go, Lionel, please.” The air from the room is gone, leaving a thick, dark atmosphere behind it.

I need to breathe. I need to set myself free.

I need my life back.

“Let’s find out what kind of shit this is,” he mutters as he lets me go. “I’m going to call Ethan.”

A bitter laugh leaves my mouth. “And he’ll come running because he’s at your beck and call?”

Lionel looks at me disapprovingly, clearly hurt about the comment I made. “He’s not at my beck and call,” he states. “But I hired his security company, and a situation has come up, and I think it’s safer for him to come here to talk than us going to his office downtown at Oracle Security.”

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