Page 120 of Don't Make Me Beg
“Do I?” He crosses his arms, a challenge in his posture. “Looks pretty official to me.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re my husband… technically.”
“There’s notechnicallyabout it,” he cuts in, voice low and unwavering. “I’m your husband. You’re my wife. And this—” he gestures between us, “This is real. I don’t care how it started. I meant every word of those vows.” His tone softens as his eyes lock on mine. “I love you, Scout. Honestly, I can’t even remember a time when I wasn’t in love with you.”
My breath catches, the weight of his confession cracking something wide open inside me. Relief, love, hope… everything rushes to the surface.
“I love you, too,” I whisper, voice thick with emotion. I throw myself into his arms, and he pulls me close, crushing me to hischest as his lips find mine. He tastes like hopes and dreams, new beginnings, and the thrill of possibility.
Kissing Luka feels like magic and safety wrapped in one.
It’s a sugar rush after too many sno cones on the Fourth of July, waking up on Christmas morning to find Santa’s visited. It’s the crackle of a campfire while roasting marshmallows, the soft hush of rain outside while you’re curled up in a pillow fort.
It’s all the best parts of being a kid... only better, because no one’s making us grow up this time.
When we finally break apart, he says, “It’s you and me, Scout. I’ll stand by your side and cheer you on while you try out as many things as you want. All I want is for you to do what makes you happy. Everything else will figure itself out.”
I think back to the message from my father, and the high I was just feeling shatters like glass.
Luka must notice the shift because his expression turns serious. “Is that all? Tell me, what are you really worried about?” He brushes my hair out of my face and straightens my glasses.
I contemplate lying but decide it’s better that he knows the truth. I’m tired of keeping secrets and tired of carrying this burden alone. I bite my lip, then finally show him the text.
The muscle in his jaw twitches, his soft smile morphing to anger as he reads the text.
“I’m sorry, I know I should’ve told you as soon as he sent it, but?—”
“I can’t believe he’s using this to get to you,” he scoffs. “Have you talked to him?”
I shake my head and sink back into my seat. “No… I wasn’t sure if there was any truth to it, and I didn’t want to make a bigger mess for you to deal with…”
“Good.” He massages his chin like he’s thinking. “Look… there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about...”
My stomach does a backflip as a wave of panic surges through me. “What’s going on? Did you already know about this? Why didn’t you tell me?—”
He places a hand on mine. “Your dad stopped by the office a few weeks ago with this bullshit threat.” He shakes his head and blows out a sigh. “Roman’s got our legal team looking into it, and it doesn’t seem like he’s got a solid case to bring any real charges against us. It’s a fairly new committee, though it was allegedly founded three years ago. We both know your father isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.”
“So it’s just an empty threat?” I ask, feeling hopeful.
Luka nods. “Yeah, I don’t think it’ll go anywhere.” He bites the inside of his cheek, and he looks away.
“What are you not telling me?” I finally ask.
He blows out a sigh. “After your dad stopped by, I had L.O.K.I. do a little digging to see what I was going up against… But he came back squeaky clean.”
I narrow my eyes, but I let him continue.
“But I knew there had to be something. We just needed to ask better questions... So I had L.O.K.I. do a deep dive onyou…”
“Me?” I ask, surprise in my tone.
“Yeah,” Luka sighs, “You’re not going to believe what you’ve been up to.”
He brings me upstairs to his office as he and L.O.K.I. give me the rundown, showing evidence of my signature on official documents spanning back more than five years.
I know I shouldn’t be shocked; this sounds exactly like the kind of thing my father would do. But I can’t ignore the hurt I feel knowing all this time, he’s been using me as his scapegoat. Did my mother know about this?
Suddenly everything makes so much sense. I can’t believe I ever thought he loved me. And I almost fell for his trap… again.
