Page 190 of The Scandal You Started
It had been five months since Victor had given her Dominic’s signet ring and told her to trust him, never elaborating any further. Over twenty bloody weeks of waiting to know what that meant! Of clutching the ring around her neck, staring at every door, hoping he’d walk in, and she could say everything he hadn’t given her enough time to say.
Dominic had finally walked in, but she couldn’t remember anything she’d wanted to say.
All she could hear was the frenzied beat of her heart, drumming to the relieved, shocked rhythm ofhe’s here, he’s back, he came back.
As she stared at the wall opposite, her eyes wide and stinging, she caught George yanking at Benedict’s arm until they both stumbled out of her periphery. Then a set of fingers touched her arm.
“Rayna—”
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped, jerking away, stumbling several steps along the table.
She whirled around, and the crinkle of hurt around Dominic’s eyes wrenched a sob from her.
No. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. But she—he—
“You left,” she accused, the click of the front door twining through her wet voice. “You left me.”
Dominic’s expression wilted further as he curled his shoulders in. “I had to, my love. You were right. Your mother was right. I could not fix my Rupture from here. The only way to do so was by going back to my own time. So I made a deal with Sheun.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she rumbled. “Why did you let me believe you’d actually left?”
He absently placed the bouquet on top of the boxes of games Benedict had laid out, coming a pace towards her. “I did not wish to, but it was the only deal Sheun would make in case I failed to fix it. She said there was less of a chance you would try to bring me back if you did not know what I was doing in the first place.”
Somewhere in her mind, she understood the reasoning, even if she hated it, hated Sheun even more, but she couldn’t accept it right then.
“Then how did you come back?” she questioned. “Someone had to bring you back, and I clearly wasn’t part of the plan, so who was it?”
“River,” he muttered.
Her heart cracked, but she wasn’t shocked by the answer. A part of her had already known.
“And V too, huh?”
“They did it for you, my love.”
She knew that, she did, but she was just so angry and hurt, so relieved that it had worked, and the mixture was messing with her head.
Rayna turned away from Dominic again, but this time, when he called her name, he also grabbed her wrist, pulling her back around. And it snapped something inside her.
“You tried to leave while I was sleeping,” she yelled, slamming her hands into his chest.
He barely swayed, his gaze turning glassy with guilt. “I thought it would hurt less.”
She pushed again, making a sound of pain as her vision swam. “You hid my fucking car keys!” She slammed him harder. “You tried to stop me from getting to you.”
He tipped towards her. “I was desperate.”
Her arms shook and tears rolled down her cheeks, but still she shoved at him. “You never said goodbye.”
“I could not.” His voice cracked. “Saying goodbye was the same as admitting I was never going to see you again. But I refused to accept that. I was going to find a way back to you.”
She fisted his jumper and tried to shake him in a burst of fury. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I’m sorry. I am so sorry, my love.”
Just like that, all her anger and the energy that came with it were gone. She slumped towards him, shaking and crying as she clung to him.
“You made me fall in love with you,” she blubbered. “And then you left. I thought you left me. I thought I—I thought I’d lost you forever. I thought you’d forgotten me. That you were going to marry Lady Claire and have the family you’d promisedme.”
