Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 18755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 94(@200wpm)___ 75(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 94(@200wpm)___ 75(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
"It seems I've vastly underestimated your sister's desire and ability to inflict harm."
Kendra paled. This had to do with Thelma?
"The cameras your twin attempted to plant all over the penthouse had transmitted real-time footage of the place, and she had uploaded it to the dark web in hopes that any of my enemies would find use of it."
Kendra didn't even know what to say. The cameras. The ones she'd noticed on the screen and couldn't think about because the nightgown had been louder. Thelma hadn't been recreating the bedroom scene. She'd been building a weapon.
"I'm so sorry—"
"I was informed earlier that your ex-husband had reached out to you?"
"Y-Yes." Kendra wasn't used to Dario cutting her off so abruptly, and why was he looking at her like she had suddenly become a stranger to him?
"And that he spoke to you about my past."
Her eyes widened. Was that why he was acting like this? Her heart started aching all over again. For him.
"Dario, it's not—"
"I believe that's my line."
Kendra was starting to feel like she was losing her mind, and her heart felt the same. It didn't know whether to feel hurt for him or for herself. What was happening?
"Because it's not what you think. I've never been obsessed with you in that sense."
"I know—"
"Do you, really?"
Kendra couldn’t help flinching at the sharpness of his voice. "I don't understand why you're talking to me like this," she whispered.
Dario's jaw tightened. "I'm talking to you like this because your sister's criminal acts had put people's lives on the line. Have you ever thought about that?" He took a step toward her, and she saw his fists clench at his sides, the knuckles going white. "The whole staff working at the penthouse. They're in danger because of what she did."
No. No. No.
She hadn't thought of that. How could she not have realized—
"Because you're stupid." Dario forced himself to say the words even if it killed him to do so, and the way he saw his wife jerk and pale...
That killed him, too, but he forced himself not to care about this either.
This was how it was supposed to be from now on.
"I chose you because you fit my requirements. And I never told you what those requirements are, have I?"
Kendra tried to take a step back, but his hand shot out, his fingers locking around her wrist like a chain that held her in place.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I d-don't think we should—"
“You don’t think we should what?” he bit out. “Talk about the truth?”
Kendra focused on struggling to free herself. The pain of his grip was easier to bear than the words her husband was throwing her way—
"I chose you because of two things, Kendra."
“S-Stop—”
But this only made his grip tighten, and when she looked up at him, thinking she could plead for him to just let go—
No.
She could no longer speak because the man in front of her wasn’t just a stranger.
“You turned me on. And you amused me. Just that."
Instead, he was a man who was just like Porter, when her ex-husband no longer wanted her.
"You were never an obsession." Dario’s voice was hollow now. Dead. Like he was reading from a page he'd already decided to burn. "And right now, you're nothing but a liability, and I want you out of my life for good."
His fingers started to uncurl from her wrist, one at a time. He was giving her the freedom she had wanted earlier, but now she had the most pathetic desire to beg him—
"The driver's waiting for you outside. He'll drive you to wherever you want."
Please, please, please hold on to me.
Kendra’s wrist was completely free now, but to her, it felt as if he had just thrown her out of his heart.
And when he turned his back on her like she had already ceased to exist—
Tears blurred her eyes.
No. No. No.
She turned away clumsily. Blindly. Her hand found the wall, and then the doorframe, and then the cold air outside, and she couldn't see where she was going because everything was blurring together, the house and the trees and the life she had thought was hers—
How could she have gotten everything wrong again?
DARIO FORCED HIMSELF to stay still as he listened to his wife leave.
It was better this way.
She was not for him, considering how she had believed someone like Selleck so easily.
Aside from Bonnie, he had someone else tailing his wife for added security incognito. And it was that man, Juanito, who had managed to capture the entire confrontation on camera. And after what Dario had watched—
It was better this way, he told himself doggedly.
The way she had cried over Selleck? That said it all. Selleck had cheated on her with her own sister, but she had still believed the other man. Had still cried for him. Had still said ‘I'm sorry about what happened to you’ to the man who had destroyed her life.