Page 182 of The Scandal You Started
“You’ve lost weight. Again,” mumbled River.
Dominic dropped his head and smiled sadly to himself.
River wasn’t the first person to have commented on his haggard appearance. His family and friends brought it up often,worrying about his withdrawal from society, his lack of appetite, and his haunting the halls of the estate until the small hours of the morning, unable to sleep.
But how was Dominic meant to eat, sleep, and live like normal, as if there wasn’t a gaping hole in his chest where his heart was supposed to be? A heart he’d left bleeding at the feet of a woman who was living her life two hundred years in the future.
A woman who had no idea he remembered her, or missed her, thought of her, longed for her every single second of every minute, day and night.
“Perhaps,” Dominic mused as he raised his chin. “But you look well.”
A pinkness washed across River’s cheeks. “Thank you.” He flexed his left hand shyly. “Kelly and I got married.”
Dominic’s chest clenched and gut twisted in a mix of yearning, surprise, and jealousy as his eyes caught on the silver band on River’s third finger. Though he still felt himself grin.
“Congratulations,” he said as he clapped the historian on the back. “Although you did not mention you were getting married when I saw you last.”
“That’s because we kind of got married on a whim…because of you, actually.”
Dominic blinked in surprise.
“The time before last, before I came to see you, Kelly kept asking me why I was travelling in the POTeM every two weeks, even though I was still suspended,” River explained. “She wouldn’t let it go, so I had to tell her I was keeping an eye on you at Victor’s instructions.” He grimaced. “She lost it and yelled at me. Said it was going to hurt Rayna if she found out. She didn’t talk to me the rest of the day. But then in bed that night she said,‘Let’s get married.’
“I was surprised at first. We’ve only been engaged a year. But when I came back, we booked a registry at the city hall andgot married with only our immediate family and a few friends there. We’re planning to have a proper ceremony in the autumn, though. But yeah.” River scratched his jaw, smiling coyly. “I’m a married man now.”
Dominic forced his grin to widen. “Marriage suits you well.”
“Thank you.”
As Dominic eyed River’s ring again, his smile evaporated, and he clasped his hands together in a nervous grip. “How…how is Rayna?”
“She’s doing a lot better. She’s still got another two months on her suspension, but Cassie offered her a short-term project to start on in a few days, even though Rayna rejected the original job offer. But she’s good. She’s doing well.”
Dominic exhaled both in pain and relief.
When River had visited during Dominic’s first month back in his own time and told him how badly Rayna was doing, it had broken him, mentally and emotionally. He’d begged River to take him to the future there and then. He’d wanted to forget the plan and just be with Rayna. To apologise for trying to leave while she slept. For hurting her in the POTeM room.
The moment she’d rushed in through those metal doors his heart had swelled, but his mind had panicked. She wasn’t supposed to have come after him, but he’d been so glad she had. She hadn’t actually wanted him to leave, but he had to anyway. He just hadn’t been able to say goodbye because it wasn’t over.
He’d wanted to tell her that. Instead, he’d had to push her away, so she didn’t see him put on the same head contraption as River to prevent his memory from being wiped. But her stricken expression and wet eyes had plagued him since. Hearing how she’d improved every month when River visited was his only salve.
“Is she…” Dominic gulped, brushing over the empty place on his left pinkie finger. “Is she still wearing my ring?”
“It’s still on a chain around her neck.” River nodded his head to the side. “She’s still calling you‘the fucking idiot,’though.”
Dominic chuckled, tired but satisfied. “That is fine. So long as she does not forget me, she can insult me however she wishes to. In fact, encourage it. Make certain she stays angry at me until I find a way back to her. I can convince her to forgive me if she is angry. I do not think I could convince her to love me again if she becomes indifferent.”
River scoffed. “She’s definitely not showing any signs of becoming indifferent. Honestly, I can’t shake the feeling she knows something, which is why she’s so annoyed whenever anyone talks about you.”
“Do you think Victor may have told her something?”
“Don’t know. But I wouldn’t rule it out, considering how worried he was about her that first month. Or it’s the ring. Maybe she thinks you left it with her for a reason, but she’s angry you didn’t tell her why.”
That was exactly why Dominic had asked Victor to give it to her. So that maybe she’d use that clever mind of hers and read between the lines as she had done with the letters, and realise he’d left her the ring as a promise he was going to come back for her.
“How’s it going with the plan, though?” River then asked.
The plan.
