Page 42 of Cruel Vows

I grab the entire bag and turn it upside down. “You’re not going to leave. Where the hell do you even plan to go?”

“I told you. I’ll find a man to fuck, and then I’m going straight to my brother and insisting he kills you.”

“Because you don’t give a shit about the alliance between our families.”

“Fuck the goddamn alliance!” She throws her hands up in the air as she spins to face me again. “I don’t care about it. I never did. I married you because it was what Aiden asked of me. Because I always have to be a good fucking member of the Lynde family. Do what Aiden says. Protect the family at all costs.”

“So what’s changed now?”

When she looks at me, the anger seems to deflate from her body. Her shoulders slump inward. “Because who the hell is protecting me?”

I stand there in stunned silence, not knowing what to say to her.

She has a large family, and from what Aiden’s said, Ellie has always been the one he doesn’t have to worry about. She’s the one who takes care of herself.

And now it seems like she’s wishing that someone would have stepped in and cared for her.

Which is what I’m trying to do right now, but she won’t let me.

Ellie seizes the opportunity and snatches her bag from the bed before disappearing into the hall, her skirt sweeping through the door.

“For fuck’s sake.” I look up at the ceiling for a moment, taking a deep breath and wondering who the hell I pissed off in a past life to get saddled with her in this one.

I head out of the room, jogging down the stairs in time to see her opening her purse and grabbing out her wallet and phone. She dumps them both into her overnight bag.

“Wait.” I reach for her, but she flinches away from me. “Aren’t you going to ask if I actually cheated on you?”

I don’t know why I bring it up.

She might know some of the women at the clubs and I can’t risk telling her what I’m doing. Ellie could let something slip to one of them, and then my chances at getting information out of any of the women would be all over.

Ellie can’t be trusted. At least not yet.

“No.” She zips up her bag, swapping her heels for a pair of running shoes. “Because either you’re going to lie to me and say you didn’t do it, even though I’ve spent years listening to you and Aiden brag about your conquests, or you’ll say you did.”

“And what if there’s a world where I didn’t cheat on you?”

“You’re spending time with strippers, then coming home to try and fuck me because they won’t?” she asks, her voice rising an octave and her tone making it clear she thinks I’m an idiot. “I deserve more than that, even from a fake husband.”

Ellie brushes by me, opening the front door to the pouring rain. She doesn’t hesitate for a second as she charges out there, not sparing me a glance.

Thunder rolls and lightning flashes, bright-white light highlighting the swells of the deep-purple clouds.

Her hair clings to her back, the dress soaked through and clinging to every inch of her body. She keeps heading down the driveway, not caring about the storm raging on around her.

There’s a part of me that wants to let her keep walking.

If she wants to be a child and throw a tantrum about this, then that’s her problem. Not mine. I didn’t sign up to deal with this shit.

Except I did when I agreed to marry her. When she told me that she could handle everything but cheating.

And since I can’t tell her that I’m not cheating on her, this is what I do have to deal with because she’s right. I may not like her, but even I know that she deserves more than this.

She shouldn’t have to be miserable for however long this marriage has to last.

“Ellie!” I take another look at the sky as lightning cracks before I chase after her, water sloshing up the side of my suit pants as I run through a puddle.

Her back stiffens, but she keeps walking.

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