Page 89 of Forgotten Promise

“John!” The sound of Kailani calling his name froze him in place. She looked frantic, and her panic muted his own feelings of hurt as he turned, ready to help her, protect her, whatever she needed.

“What is it?” he asked as Kailani rushed up to him. “What’s happened?”

“It’s Benjamin,” she said almost hysterically. “He’s gone!”

John frowned. Selene told him Benjamin had walked out of the meeting. An asshole move, but not surprising, not really.

“And?” he asked, his voice wooden even to his own ears.

He noticed the dark circles under her eyes, the panic laced with weariness when she said, “He left the island. I went to find him, to talk to him about…” She paused, not meeting John’s gaze.

So Benjamin hadn’t just excused himself from the room. He’d really left.

No, not left, run away. With the trinity dissolved, Benjamin had decided to move on with his life. Yet another arrow to the heart. He hadn’t even bothered to say goodbye.

“Selene told me she dissolved the trinity.” John fought to keep the fury he felt from slipping out.

“She did,” was all Kailani offered in return.

“And you both just sat there and said nothing.”

The fact he knew clearly took her aback. But not for long. She pushed her hair behind her ear. “I should have said something, should have spoken up. I wanted to. So badly. I just…”

“You just what?” This time, the words came out too sharp. Too loud.

John couldn’t go easy on her. Discovering they’d remained silent rather than speaking up for their trinity cut deep. Too deep. There was a gaping hole in his chest left behind from where she and Benjamin had ripped his heart out.

When Kailani spoke, her words were soft. “I should have stopped her. Should have asked her not to do it.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because Benjamin—”

John exploded. “Goddammit! Don’t fucking tell me it was because of your past relationship with Benjamin! That’s ancient history, Kailani, and it’s time to move on. I thought you had, thought the two of you were making strides toward working things out.”

“We were,” Kailani said. “Or at least, I thought we might be able to. If I’d been Grand Master, I wouldn’t have dissolved our trinity. Maybe…we could have talked and—”

“How the hell were we going to talk if the two of you weren’t even capable of opening your mouths to ask Selene to stop?”

John never spoke with this kind of malice, this kind of anger. Shit. He wasn’t sure he’d ever been this angry.

A childhood filled with disappointment had taught him not to set his hopes too high because the second he started to care about something, life had a way of pulling the rug out.

This time…with them…he’d dropped his guard, lowered the walls he’d built to protect himself because of false security.

The Trinity Masters had promised to give him a family.

“I made a mistake, John. Today. And after our binding ceremony. I’m sorrier than I—”

“Why didn’t you speak up?” he asked again, aware he’d cut her off, afraid she would tell him that her feelings hadn’t changed, that she still didn’t want a true marriage with Benjamin.

“I was waiting for Benjamin to say something. Selene was addressing him. Dissolving the trinity was his request.”

On the surface, her response made sense. But it was still a lame excuse.

“You didn’t give him much choice, vowing to cut him out of the marriage,” he said, though he was starting to feel like he was kicking a dog that was down. Especially when she wiped away a tear. Now was not the time for this conversation. His temper was only rising.

“I know. John,” she said. “I’m so sorry. For everything. I hope that you can find it in your heart to—”

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