Page 170 of The Scandal You Started
Why won’t you hurry up and come back? Come back to me. Please, Dominic.
A minute passed. And then ten.
Rayna couldn’t take it anymore. She turned the TV off and paced the room as she dialled Dominic’s number repeatedly.
To no avail.
She let out a frustrated sound, dread making her pulse erratic, and tried one last time. That was when she heard a car driving along the gravel path right in front of the house.
She ran out of the room and ripped open the front door.
Dominic climbed out of the front passenger seat of River’s car, bent to say something, then closed the door as if he had all the time in the world. As if Rayna wasn’t standing behind him, anxious to the point of nausea, and that sent a stampede of anger trampling through her veins.
River gave her a pursed-lip nod through the windscreen, but she barely acknowledged it as Dominic walked towards the house.
“So because I didn’t answer my phone, you thought it’d be a nice bit of revenge not to answer yours?” she spat as River drove off down the path.
Dominic’s hollow, golden gaze stilled before he patted a hand over each of his front trouser pockets. “Apologies,” he said. “I do not seem to have it on me. I think I left it at the house.”
Oh…
“I did not mean to leave it behind. I am sorry.”
Her anger slipped off her shoulders, but sadness, guilt, and regret filled her throat. And it was the worst combination. One that threatened to spill the tears she was struggling to hold in.
“Why did you take so long?” she asked as she closed the door behind him.
“There was rather more to do than I had anticipated.”
She frowned at his broad back. “What does that mean?”
He stopped just past the living room entrance and rotated halfway. The bloodshot glaze coating his eyes made her stomach sink.
“I did as you asked. I shall be returning to my time at the end of our ten days.”
Nothing.
Rayna felt nothing. Said nothing. Heard nothing, not even her own heartbeat.
She waited and waited. And waited. Unblinking, unbreathing. Looking for the crack of a smile before Dominic told her it was a test, that he’d said it to prove she didn’t really want him to leave, that he was lying; really, he was staying, and there was nothing she could do to get rid of him. They’d marry and have children, not immediately but at some point, and he’d be the husband she never knew she wanted, and an amazing dad, and…and he’d be with her. Always.
He didn’t say any of that. Didn’t look away either.
He was serious.
He’d done it.
He was leaving.
Rayna’s lungs started burning, forcing her to breathe. “That’s…”
Good? Bad? Wrong? The best choice for him?
“That’s in two days.”
“It is.”
Silence.
