Page 135 of Never Fall for an Angel

Despite everything, my heart swells when I see him, only to burst with agony and fear at his secret.

“How long?”

Silence.

“How long, Christian?”

His jaw ticks. “Two years in November.”

“How could you hide this from me?” I breathe, a tear slipping down my cheek. I’m powerless to stop it.

He watches its descent, staring at it with a darkness in his gaze that sends a shiver down my spine.

“Youlied!” I screech, the rush of emotion overpowering and painful.

How could he do this to me?

Adrenaline bursts through me and paired with the venomous rage slipping through my veins, I lash out, shoving at his chest. He lets me, but he barely moves, though I gave it everything I had.

He attempts to catch my hands, but I back out of his grasp, the anger in my blood more potent and volatile than anything I’ve ever felt before.

“You left!”

“I kept you alive,” he growls, voice rough and caustic. He reaches for me, but I rip away from his grasp, stumbling back into the desk and sending the folder flying to the ground. The evidence of our tattered and broken love story covering the floor at my feet. “Your stepfather wanted to sell you,” he sneers, his eyes glinting almost black. “Two million for your hand in marriage. I made sure that marriage was impossible.”

“You tricked me intomarryingyou? Are you fucking crazy?”

“I did what I had to do to keep you safe,” he argues back, his cheeks reddening and his eyes murderous. I’ve never seen him look so deadly. “Who do you think he was going to sell you to? Someone worthy? Because as far as I know, if you have to buy a wife, you probably don’t fucking need one.”

“You’re lying—”

“I did what I had to do,” he replies frostily.

And then it clicks.

“The day you took me to the lawyer’s office . . . was any of that for my inheritance?”

He doesn’t say anything, but his gaze hardens, his eyes burning with an intensity I’ve never seen before.

“Oh my god.” I collapse back into the desk, my head reeling.

Everythingmakes sense now.

“You saw what your mother’s life was like. Your sister. That the kind of life you want to live?” he challenges darkly, taking a single step into the room. My skin bristles, the hair rising on the back of my neck when he gets closer.

“I think you’re a lying psychopath,” I growl, scrubbing the tears off my cheeks. “I think you were scared after you tricked me into marrying you, and you ran off. Then, you came back because you felt sorry for me,” I scoff, shaking my head. “I didn’t need your pity, Christian. I neededyou.”

“And you fucking had me,” he bites back. “Even when you couldn’t see me, I was right fucking there, watching over you.”

“You’re a monster,” I breathe, shivering at the coldness in his eyes. The eyes of myhusband.

He scoffs, pushing away from me. “You’ve got to become a monster to kill a monster, baby.” He paces the room in front of me, his lips curling back in a sneer when he finally meets my eyes. “You think I brought you here for fucking fun? To see how long it would take for you to crack and tell me why you shot me? I know you didn’t fucking shoot me. I’ve had concrete evidence for weeks.”

My breath catches in my throat, and the floor feels like it’s falling out from under me.

I . . . didn’t shoot him?

“So why am I here, then?” I whisper, so quiet, it’s barely audible over the rain pouring outside. “If you took care of it, then why kidnap me and force me to hide out on your little island?”

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