Page 14 of Ruthless Regret

My laugh sounds bitter. “He was innocent. I didn’t believe it then, but I know it now. I sent an innocent man to prison. He’s had fourteen years to think about that, and to hate me for it.”

“How do you know he didn’t do it?”

“It doesn’t matter.” I look at each of them in turn. “But after the interview today, something happened.” I tell them about the attack at the house, but don’t mention how I slept with Zain.

They don’t need to know that. It’ll just complicate things more.

CHAPTER SEVEN

ZAIN

The momentthe deputy drives off, and I’m finally alone, the air around me changes.

I’ve been alone a few times since being released. But not like this. Even at the hotel, while I was alone in my room, there were other people around. The security detail Peter hired, hotel staff, people staying in other rooms.

This is different.

There isn’t a single other person in the house or on the grounds. I’m alone.Completelyalone. And the silence sets me on edge.

It means I have no way to avoid the thoughts in my head.

For the first time since I set my plan into motion, I’m not sure what the hell I’m doing. From the second my verdict was announced, my mind has been in overdrive. I had a mental checklist of all the things I needed to do, and I’ve been completely focused on that … and now, that list has collapsed.

I rub a hand down my face, and walk back into the house.

I thought forcing Ashley to marry me and making her experience the thingsIhad to live through would be enough.

I thought that making her pay for every single one of those fourteen years I spent rotting in prison would bring me closure.

I thought that marrying her would be the perfect revenge. A way to reclaim the life she stole from me.

But watching her walk out didn’t feel like a win. It felt like losing control. Again.

She thinks I’m even more of a monster now. And maybe she’s right. Maybe somewhere during my incarceration I lost touch with the person I was before.

I laugh. There’s no maybe about that. Ididlose touch with who I was. I had to, just to survive.

But it doesn’t change the fact that I blackmailed her into marrying me. I manipulated her into signing a contract that Iknowwon’t stand up in court. I wanted her to suffer, to feel the weight of everything I lost because of her.

But somehow over the last twenty-four-hours, I stopped seeing her as someone I needed to destroy, and started seeing her as another victim in this whole fucked up mess.

And no matter how much I try, I can’t fucking stop seeing the expression on her face before she left. She looked at me like I’m the villain in her story. And I am. I fuckingknowI am.

But she’s not innocent either. She put me away. She took everything from me. I can’t forget that.

I sigh.Why am I still hanging onto that line?

Because it’s all I have.

No, that’s not true. It’s all Ihad.

Everything has changed, and not just because we had sex. It changed last night. It all changed in that moment where I thought she was going to fall down the stairs.

I walk through to the kitchen, and stop in front of the back door and its shattered window, so I can stare out into the yard beyond.

That masked bastard who attacked her is still out there somewhere. Someone went afterher, and not me.

The memory of the knife in the attacker’s hand flashes through my mind again. The way it glinted in the light. The way it felt when I thought I wouldn’t get to her in time.

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