Page 180 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 5-8

She was a liar. She knew, as he did, that love didn’t exist. And yet she used this word like ammunition. But her words would not pierce his armour. He would not let her in. He would not let her leave. Abandon him.Again.

‘My mother. She was like you,’ he said, and he saw her frown, watched her lips compress, as she waited for him to explain. So he continued, because she needed to understand that he saw straight through her.

‘She married my father with a contract such as ours. A marriage contract that stipulated the conditions of their marriage. The rules. And my mother used them to her advantage. She manipulated my father into giving her a bigger settlement. She used what she thought he wanted most and manipulated him. I have never hidden how much I want you. I never tried to hide the power you have over me. Even without your memory, you have seen it. My desire to keep you. And you use that admission against me. But I will not be manipulated.’

‘What is it you think I want from you if not what I’ve asked for?’ she said. ‘I want your love. And I’m willing to walk away without it.’

‘And it is too big a payment,’ he rasped. ‘An impossible request. It does not exist. It is a lie.’

‘But it does exist. You collected me from the hospital because of love. You have taken care of me with love. You—’

‘Kept my promise to you!’ A roar built inside him. And he wanted to release it. Call her names. Call her a liar. A manipulator. ‘And you have broken them all. I told you my story of a boy—’

‘A lonely boy.’

‘And you have twisted everything I told you, and now you threaten to take away the one thing I want.You. So, what is it, Emma? Tell me,’ he roared. ‘What do you think I will give to you if you offer me love?’

‘Love in return.’

‘You are a liar.’

‘Can’t you see?’ she asked, and there were her tears again. And she placed her open palm on his chest. Over his heart. A reflection of where their relationship had started.

And the organ that gave him life, it was betraying him. It pumped too hard. Too fast under the pressure of her fingers. ‘They, our parents, are dragging something beautiful into their ugly mistakes. I have never played with you or toyed with you. I have been honest with you since the night we met. Iambeing honest with you now. And I know what I’m saying is against the rules. But I have changed.Wehave changed. Let me in, Dante. Let me inside. Let me love you.’

‘No.’ He shrugged off her hand. Her hold on him. He would have his power back and he would have it now.

‘I came into this marriage with nothing, and I’ll leave with what I came with, because I don’t need any of it. The things in Mayfair that I left behind in the first place, I don’t want them,’ she husked. ‘I only want you. I only needyou.This isn’t a plan of deception. I am not trying to deceive you. I am not your mother. I... I love you. And I know you love me. But I won’t...’

‘You are wrong, Emma. I do not love you. I do not want your love. I will not beg you to stay. I will not accept your lies. Your broken promises in place of something we both know doesn’t exist. And yet you use it, this wordloveas though it means something to me. It meansnothing.’

His fingers were still clenched around her small wrist. He looked down to where he held her, tethered her to him, and his fingers ached with every demand he made for them to loosen. To release her.

‘And nowyoumean nothing to me.’

He let her wrist go, and he couldn’t inhale.

He could not feed his lungs enough air.

He could not breathe deeply enough.

‘But I keep my promises, Emma,’ he said, because who was he without rules, without the playbook? He was weak. He would not be weak. But it flashed in his head. Emma’s hardness. Birmingham. The hospital. The blood—

‘Tomorrow, I will call a car to collect you. Book the jet to take you back to England. The Mayfair house is yours. The deeds will be at the house when you arrive.’

‘Dante—’

‘You will be financially secure for the rest of your life.’

‘I—’

‘I do not want to listen to you anymore, Emma. I do not want to be anywhere near anything you have touched. Tainted with your lies and broken promises. Everything in the house is yours. I do not want any of it. I do not want—’ he looked at his hand, at the gold band that signified their union ‘—this.’

He took it off, his wedding ring, and displayed it in the air between them and held her gaze, ignored the tears streaming down her cheeks and the instinct to use his thumb to wipe them away.

He dropped the ring to the floor.

She gasped.

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