Page 107 of The Alpha's Uncovered Mate

Adam gives me an amused look. "You're right. I wouldn't have. Either way, you're here now."

"Not for long." I turn my attention back to the files in front of me. "As soon as this launch is over, I'm going to start taking days off. You'll be without a marketing director."

"That's your strategy?" Adam rests his cheek on his closed fist, watching me. "Take days off and drive me into a worried frenzy?"

"I doubt anything can drive you into a frenzy," I scoff.

"You did," he says quietly. "When you left."

My hand, holding the pen, stills, and I stare down at the contents of the proposal before me, my eyes unseeing.

"You ran away, Cynthia."

"What should I have done then?" I look up at him, my eyes flashing. "Stay with the man who whispered promises to me while he got engaged to the woman he told me I didn't have to worry about? Should I have stayed with the man who would have used the blood debt his father bound me with to chain me to his side? I just wanted my freedom, and you wanted to be the alpha. I always thought that the man I needed protection from was Jonathon. It never hit me that you were his son and that I needed to be protected from you, too!"

Adam is pale, and my heart is beating painfully. I can't stay here. I don't want to look at him. My feelings are a tangled mess within me, and my head is throbbing.

"I'm going home." I grab my bag and phone and stride toward the door, unable to spend one more second with him. It's hurting. My heart never healed from the scars Adam left. It throbs each time I see him, the memory of what he wanted to do to me making me feel wretched.

He grabs my wrist as I pass him, forcing me to stop. I try to pull away from him, but he doesn't let go. He gets to his feet, whirling me around to face him. I slam into his hard chest and he holds me there, his eyes dark. "You're still mine. Don't you ever forget that. You can go hide in the farthest corners of this earth, and I will still find you."

His words make my heart skip a beat, but I harden my heart. "I'm not yours, Adam. Go to your fiancée or your wife. Or is Tina your mate now?" My smile is twisted, my heart bitter. "You got everything you wanted. You became the alpha. You have the perfect woman by your side. You have the support of her fortune and her status. Don't go making eyes at a woman who was once a slave."

I shove him away from me with newfound strength. He doesn't stop me.

"You knew I wasn't worthy to stand by you back then, so you wanted to keep me a slave. Did you get off on thinking of how you will strip me of my will, my choice?" I step closer to him, my voice taunting, my heart bleeding. "Did you enjoy thinking of all the power you would have over the slave who dared to be your fated mate?"

Adam's face is white as a sheet.

My voice is soft. "Did you know that I injected myself with wolfsbane when I realized what you were planning to do?"

He jerks at my words, a look of horror forming on his face.

"My heart didn't beat for five minutes. I died for five minutes just to escape your family, including you. In my eyes, Adam, you're no a less of monster than your father and brother. All of you wanted to keep me tied with a leash like a dog, doing only your bidding, my body at your disposal. I thought that you were different. I was sure that because you protected me, you would not do that to me. But your wounds left scars that have never left me."

I take a step back, feeling empty now. "I will never be yours, Adam. Not when I was willing to taste death just to get away from you."

I turn on my heels and walk away, unable to bear the expression on his face.

I don't want to feel guilty for making him look like that.

I don't want to see the glassy sheen in his eyes, the agony on his face.

He hurt me! He was… He broke my heart in the worst way possible.

I keep myself together until I get in my car, and that's when I collapse. My tears are hot and heavy, and they don't stop. Sitting in my office building's parking lot, I lean my head against the steering wheel and let out four years of pent-up emotion.

By the time I manage to get myself together, it's one in the morning.

Riya will be asleep, and there's no point in waking her up to take her home.

Picking up my phone, I send a voice message to my assistant. "Kofo, I'm down with a cold. I still have leftover work, so drop the files off at my house tomorrow, please."

Once that is done, I head over to one of those twenty-four-seven fast-food chains and grab myself some food. There is a park across from my apartment, and it's empty at this time of night. I sit on one of the swings, eating my food.

When I used to believe in Adam's promises, I had imagined the two of us with our child living in a place like this. It would be our home, filled with love, dreams, and laughter. I had dreamed of Sunday breakfasts and laying in bed with my little family. It had all been fantasies. Perhaps those had been a way of distracting myself from reality. When he broke that dream, I picked myself up and moved on with our daughter. Riya looks like him. She's never asked about her father, but she's still young. Soon, she will be curious, and I don't know what to tell her.

This hole that Adam left in my heart is one that has remained hollow. I've never sought to fulfill it, letting the wound grow dull and hollow. But I've been able to ignore it until now. Seeing him, though, hearing his voice and feeling his touch, it's removing the scabs from that wound, making it fresh and painful once again.

---