Page 178 of The Scandal You Started
She soared upright.
Brown hair. Green eyes. Tall. Athletic. Movie-star handsome.Not Dominic.
“Hi,” Jake said with a slight smile.
“No.” The pained word fell from her lips before they started quivering. “No. Why did you bring him here?”
Benedict and George’s jazz hands halted, and their smiles dropped. They glanced at each other.
“You said this would cheer her up,” George hissed.
Benedict widened his eyes. “I thought it would.”
“This is why no one ever listens to you.”
Rayna swiped at tears as Jake came towards her bed.
He perched right at the edge. “What happened, Rayna?” he asked softly.
“I pushed him away,” she cried.
Jake asked if he could sit next to her. She made space for him, and they talked about Dominic.
It was different, telling Jake about him. Maybe because he didn’t know about the POTeM project, and she had to lie about Dominic going back to his home in Jahandar. Or because they’d once thought they were interested in each other, and Dominic had been stupidly jealous of Jake. Either way, it helped. Only a very slight amount.
But that slight amount made her sleep better that night, and a little better the next night too. She still cried, but one more hour of sleep beat an hour awake, missing Dominic.
Towards the end of the third week, Rayna felt a spark of irritation at the way everyone was still coddling her like she was severely ill. It motivated her to get out of bed, shower, change into an old T-shirt, trousers, and trainers, and head down to the kitchen.
Cereal dripped off George’s spoon as he gawked at her from the dining table, while Victor lowered his coffee mug.
“Morning,” she mumbled awkwardly.
They both muttered a reply.
“I want to get my stuff from the farmhouse today.”
Edge of the paddock
Declan stared at Victor’s side profile as they stood silently at the fence of the paddock that surrounded the stables the Griffins’ home sat next to. They’d left Rayna in the farmhouse to pack her things and grieve privately, but Victor had yet to meet his older cousin’s gaze.
“Are you going to tell me what’s really going on?” Declan eventually said.
Victor finally diverted his ice-blue eyes away from the five grazing horses. “What do you mean?”
Declan grunted and stood tall, staring his cousin down from under his cattleman hat. “Do you think anyone other than Rayna actually believes Dominic left her just because she told him to?” He threw a hand to the side. “On top of the fact that it normally takes a small army of scientists to work the POTeM, so why were there only three in the room with you?”
Victor glanced down with a swallow. “It was all done last minute, so they were the only ones around to help.”
“Don’t fucking lie to me, Vic. Where is Dominic?”
Victor adjusted his glasses. “He went back.”
“But he didn’t just go back, did he?”
Silence. But Declan had his answer.
“Whatever he did, whatever he’s trying to do, you need to tell Rayna,” he said firmly. “She needs to know he didn’t just leave her. Before her heart breaks beyond repair.”
