Page 123 of Vicious Addictions

Confused by her demeanor, I step out of the tub, ready to demand she talk to me. However, my mind goes blank the second she picks up a ring from the counter with the biggest fucking diamond I have ever seen.

“What the fuck is that?” I all but shout.

“What does it look like?” Mina doesn’t flinch, doesn’t even look minimally remorseful as she waves the fucking diamond in my face.

“It looks like a fucking engagement ring, Mina. That’s what it looks like.” My pulse pounds in my ears, drowning out everything but the glint of that damned diamond on her finger.

A slow, lazy smile starts to tug at her lips, tilting her hand so the light catches it just right. “It really is stunning, isn’t it?”

I step closer, my voice low and sharp. “Mina, don’t fucking toy with me right now. Are you—”

“Engaged?” She lifts her chin up at me. “As a matter of fact, yes. Yes, I am.”

The word slams into my chest like a bullet.

“You can’t be serious right now?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you think just because we fucked, I’d come running back to you?” She laughs, a cruel, cutting sound. “No, Jude. That ship sailed a long time ago. In a couple of months, I’ll be Mrs. Ibrahim.”

Felix.

“I should’ve known. That motherfucker always did covet what was mine.”

“Except, I was never yours, Jude.” Her voice is like ice, slicing straight through me. “You never claimed me. You never even wanted to. Remember?”

I just stare at her, stunned.

Speechless.

Hurt.

She sees it, too. Sees me grappling with the weight of it all, the amusement in her eyes only deepening the pain I feel inside.

“Oh, my God,” she murmurs mockingly. “Did I do it? Did I actually manage to cut the great Jude Romano’s cold, black heart?”

“This isn’t fucking funny, Mina.”

“On the contrary,” she says, leaning back against the sink, completely unbothered. “I find it hilarious.”

Something inside me snaps.

Before I can stop myself, I’m on her. My hand wraps around her slender throat, fingers pressing just enough to feel her pulse hammer beneath my grip.

Her eyes don’t widen. Don’t fill with fear. They grow colder. Harder.

“What are you going to do, Jude?” she whispers. “Kill me?”

“No,” I rasp, my jaw tightening. “Your fiancé, on the other hand, has his days numbered. I’ll make you a widow before he’ll ever make you his wife.”

She laughs, breathless but not afraid, standing with nothing but an open robe and that fucking ring on her finger.

She didn’t even keep my necklace.

“You forfeited any say in what I do with my life a long time ago,” she taunts. “Don’t act like the jilted lover now.”

I swallow hard, fighting the storm inside me. “Do you love him?”

For the first time since stepping out of the tub, she falters. Her eyes widen slightly as if she wasn’t expecting the question to come out of my mouth.

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