Page 137 of In Love with a Cruel Billionaire

It always came back to Damen.

Always.

Again, the most painful question lacerated his mind.

How many times did Mairi have to suffer just because she loved him?

“I’m sorry that my relationship with her has made Mairi avoid you and Velvet, but I promise you,” Damen vowed grimly, “I will make the man who had attempted to...” He had to stop speaking, had to unclench his fingers so he would not accidentally crush the phone in his hands. “The man who tried to violate her will pay. This I promise you.”

But even as he said the words, even though he knew he meant every word, Damen knew it was not enough. He feared that it would never be enough.

Chapter 3

TWO MONTHS EARLIER

The man in the mirror wearily gazing back at Damen Leventis looked like hell. His hair was uncombed, his eyes were bloodshot, and his face was haggard and unshaven. He wore expensive clothes, but they were yesterday’s clothes, crumpled after he spent the whole night tossing and turning. They hung loosely about his body, which had grown noticeably thinner.

He had not been able to sleep without the aid of drugs or liquor ever since he had learned of Mairi’s attack.

How could he when he was still not sure that she was indeed fine, that she was even alive?

The rational side of his mind told Damen that he was worrying over nothing. That if something had happened to Mairi, then her two American aunts would not have been living their lives normally. He knew from the investigative report he had ordered that the two older women loved Mairi fiercely – perhaps just as fiercely as he loved Mairi. They would not be able to pretend everything was fine if something bad had happened to their beloved niece.

But the irrational part of Damen?

It worried, desperately, and it made up the larger part of his mind. It told him that if Damen had not had a single inkling of Mairi’s suffering when she was fighting off Cleon Frangos, how could he allow himself to believe that it would be different this time...that he wouldknowif Mairi was suffering now?

Tearing his gaze off his reflection, he bent down to splash cold water on his face, needing himself sober. After switching the tap off, he grabbed the towel hanging from the rail and patted his face dry, feeling more and more awake with each passing second.

By the time Damen sat down in front of his laptop, his mind was completely alert, his body alive, and his heart remained beating with the hope that there would come a day he would see Mairi again.

He began to type.

Dear Mairi,

I’m not sure if you will be able to read this letter. On the off chance that you are and this is the first letter of mine that you are able to read, I want you to know that I’m sorry.

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