Page 26 of Burning Your Lies

“Maybe it was foolish to love you. And it may be even more foolish to admit just how much I loved you. But I did.”

My voice carries the betrayal I feel. “And then you marriedhim.”

She walks past me and opens the door. “I’m not doing this with you. Get out.”

I storm towards her and slam the door shut. “No, Savannah! Lets! Let’s talk about how Isavedyou, and you married him.”

“You told everyone I was crazy! You put me in a fucking care home!” She doesn’t back down from our staring match.

“You needed help! I did that. I paid for your care!”

“I needed help to get away from you,” she spits. “You paid to keep my mouth shut. And then you did everything you could to hurt me.”

Those pills have distorted her memory. Her ungratefulness has no other explanation. I sacrificed my marriage, my sanity, my heart for her. I protected her even when she didn’t know she needed it.

“Hurt you?” I echo. “I came to visit you, so you were never alone. I took my daughter into that place full of nutcases. For you!”

“She’s my daughter too,” she says lowly. “She’s not just yours. And the only reason you had to bring her there was because you needed to silence me.”

“I would have given you the world,” I remind her. “All you had to do was say yes.”

Her chest rises and falls. There’s an internal fight playing out in her eyes as she watches me. A single tear streaks down her face. “I told you I just want to forget. I don’t want to hash this out with you. I want to befreeof you, Xavier.”

She is just like my mother and the others. She used me and now wants to discard of me. No one possesses such power over me. I don’t disappear. I make people disappear.

“How much?”

“What?”

“How much money? I will give you whatever the fuck you want. Just get out of here. Forget about Elise. Have your own baby. But you’re not taking mine.”

Her hand covers her mouth but the laugh still evades. “I think we’ve seen this movie before. What, Xavier? You promise me money and then put me on a plane. I should ask Elliot how that plot played out.” Everything in her screams disgust at me. “You could offer me all the money in the world, and I willnevertake it. Because paying a debt to you would equal my life. Or, as we both know, you prefer a diamond.”

I’m very aware this could all be a ploy to get me to admit to murder. She probably has a camera recording the whole thing. I stand taller and smooth my hair over. “I have a chance at real love. Someone who loves me.”

She shakes her head. “The problem isn’t her ability to love you. You are very easy to love. Emery said that to me once andIwishI heard the warning in her voice. But the problem is thatyouare incapable of loving anyone. You are a sociopath with psychopathic tendencies. This ideal you have built in your head of a wife and family is not because you truly want it. You only desire it to appear normal. Your brain is wired so you cannot fall in love. You did not love me. You do not love Elise or Brynn. So do us all a favour, and let us go.”

She is wrong. Elise and Brynn would not be happier without me. I provide for them. I protect them. Without me, Brynn would be lost in the big city, with no friends to call her own. She would be jobless. Elise would be without a secure future. She would live a mediocre life.

“Perhaps you are right. I did not love you. I stand by what I said to Emery the night she found out. I was desperate, and you were easy. You were a bankrupt stripper who I gave purpose to. But Brynn is not you. She is sophisticated and graceful. She is my true queen.”

She smiles at me. “You can change the board. You can change the players. But eventually everyone realises the king is not worth protecting.”

14

Xavier

Basileusis bustling with the affluent. Unlike most clubs, the attendees are dressed in designer suits and cocktail gowns. The glossy black marble floors meet the black walls and give it the moody look Rowan is notorious for. His clubs are exclusive, but those who were lucky to secure an invitation know what he was truly known for; private poker games. The buy-in is fifty-thousand and the winning over ten times that.

“Wow,” Brynn mutters as she gawks. “This is … wow.”

The remaining two bodies of our party stay close together, sharing stern looks. Ray wraps his arms around Savannah and whispers something into her ear. Whatever he said makes her swallow hard.

“We’re here on business,” I remind him. “I want to secure an exclusive contract with Rowan Ashford for all current and future clubs.”

Savannah takes a deep breath. “Let’s get to business then.” She runs her hand down her short black dress. The dimmed lights reflect off the sequins that cover the entire fabric, pulling all eyes onto her. Her exposed, long tanned legs remind me of the timeswhen they would be locked around my neck as I ate the pussy that is barely covered by her outfit. The strings of her excessively tall heels wrap around her calves. And then there are her breasts that move with every step. Savannah is not afraid to flaunt the hourglass figure that still fills my fantasies.

Brynn is the catalyst for a much-needed change. Her fitted beige dress helps her blend into the crowd. While Savannah’s hair sways down her back to her ass, Brynn crafted every strand of her locks into a fancy bun. Her earlobes are adorned with a single pearl that matches the strand circled around her neck. She looks beautiful.

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