Page 53 of In Love with a Cruel Billionaire

“You don’t want to speak to him?”

She shook her head.

“Reallydon’t want to speak to him?”

She nodded.

“Okay.” And then to her shock, Velvet answered the phone. “Hello?”

It took a moment for Mairi to recover. “Velvet!”

“Oh? You’re looking for Mairi? Well, she’s not here. She’s dead and you fucking killed her by being the world’s greatest asshole. So, Mr. World’s Greatest Asshole, don’t ever call her again!”

She was still gaping by the time Velvet returned the phone on the bedside table with a satisfied look on her face.

“Velvet...” Her voice trailed off. Mairi didn’t know what to say.

Velvet gave her a dry look. “You’re supposed to thank me.”

Mairi flushed. Sometimes, it just wasn’t good to have really smart friends.

“Thank you.”

Padding back to her bed, Velvet said over her shoulder, “Even though you don’t sound like it – you’re welcome.” She switched her night light off, plunging the bedroom into darkness.

The softest sound reached Velvet, and she knew that Mandy also knew it was Mairi, doing her best not to cry.

Shit. She hated men. She really hated them. They were all jerks – how could they be anything but jerks when they had the gall to hurt someone as sweet and, well, childish and gullible as Mairi?

“You cry too much,” she said gruffly and heard Mandy groan. She knew that it meant Mandy was very close to killing her for being her usual tough-girl self.

Mairi didn’t answer.

Velvet wanted to punch someone. The silence was even more awful, somehow making Mairi’s pain more intense, like a wound that bled so much they could smell the metallic scent of blood emanating from it.

Should she give Mairi stupid false words of hope just to make her feel better? She wanted to. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. Men like Damen Leventis were just...

“Mairi, he’s not worth crying over.”

It took her friend so long to answer that by the time she did, Velvet was halfway asleep.

“I know, Velvet,” Mairi whispered, closing her eyes, and when she did all she could see was him. “I know, but I just can’t stop.”

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