Chapter 005. Daphne, I Miss You

For a moment, I wondered if I heard him correctly, but the look on his face made it clear I hadn't misheard. I let out a short, disbelieving laugh."Seriously, Finn? Is that what you came here to ask me?"

"Just answer the question, Daphne. Are. You. Fucking. My. Brother?!" He growled, his face mottling into an ugly twist.

I could hear Killian shifting behind me, probably about to make Finn regret raising his voice at me but I quickly intercepted. "Why should I answer you? Would the answer make you feel better?" I scoffed. "You get caught in bed with your secretary on our engagement night, you try to pitch a bizarre breeding arrangement like some thoughtful saint, and I'm the one you're accusing of crossing a line?"

His jaw tightened. "Don't try to turn this around on me, Daphne. You stormed out of the hotel, and where do you end up? In the middle of the night, at my brother's place? It doesn't take a genius to understand what this is."

"No, I think you forgot to get your head checked when you went to see a doctor regarding your 'would have been severely damaged' groin, Finn."

He glanced at Kiliian, who stood a short distance away, watching us with an expression that suggested he would rather be anywhere else,

Finn nodded, as if he had finally placed the pieces together.

"Of course," Finn muttered. "I should have known. You've been spending all this time with him, haven't you? That's why you moved in here, and suddenly you're all comfortable with my brother."

"You are disgusting," I hissed, my hands curling into tight fists at my sides. "You project your own filth onto everyone else because you can't fathom that a woman might actually want nothing to do with a cheating, manipulative hypocrite like yourself."

"I never said I was perfect, Daphne."

"Oh, how convenient."

"Daphne, don't."

"You know what? I genuinely don't care what you think."

"Because you don't have an explanation?"

"An explanation for what? Your Imagination?" I took a step towards him."You cheated on me, Finn. You lied to me. And now you want to stand here and play the victim?"

"Oh please," Finn sneered, his voice rising in frustration."If you were that desperate for attention–If you couldn't control your lady bits for one single night instead of running to my brother's house– you should have just said something. But I guess you couldn't wait to see what the older Hawthorne brother had to offer, right?"

For a moment, I went completely still.

I stared at him, trying to understand how he could say something so disgusting. Then, before my brain could process the impulse, before logic could kick in, my right hand swung out and connected with his cheek.

The sound echoed through the quiet hallway. My palm burned, but the satisfaction lasted less than a second before a cold wave of horror washed over me. I had just hit him.

I waited for the explosion. I braced myself for the shout, the raised fist, or the retaliation I knew too well. Instead, Finn froze.

The angry look in his brown eyes fractured. His jaw trembled as he pressed a hand to his cheek where I had forgotten the slap, and to my absolute shock, heavy tears slipped down his cheeks.

Before I could make sense of what I was seeing, Finn began to cry.

His shoulders trembled. He pressed his lips together as though he were struggling to hold himself together. But the tears kept coming.

I stared at him.

What the hell?

I stood there, paralyzed, my mouth half-open. Finn Hawthorne–the golden boy, the untouchable tech entrepreneur–was standing in a hallway at three in the morning, openly sobbing.

From behind me, Killian let out a long, slow sigh. "Oh, wonderful." he muttered, his tone dripping with dry sarcasm."Fucking shakespeare. I'm thrilled to see what's next on the list. Probably a musical number? Do I need to get a violin, or are we wrapping up with the tragedy soon?"

I shot him a look. "Kiliian."

He only rolled his eyes. "What? I'm just asking. The performance seemed to have started."

Finn didn't respond. He simply lowered his head, wiping his face with the back of his hand.

And somehow, that made everything worse.

Because looking at Finn crying like a broken child, all the anger I had spent hours building suddenly crumbled. The man standing in front of me wasn't the monster who made a fool out of me with Vanessa. In that second, he was just the boy I used to know. The one I fell in love with since I was a teen.

I was fifteen when we met. He was seventeen.

We had grown up together. He had been my safe space, my best friend, the anchor of my teenage years before this cruelty had warped him into a stranger. Seeing him cry carved a raw, painful hole right in my chest.

I hated that his tears affected me this much.

Ignoring the warning bells screaming in my head, I temporarily pushed his mistreatment aside.The exhaustion of the night–my sister in a coma, Adam gone, my life upended, and now this– made me act on pure, messy instinct.

"Finn,' I called, my voice quieter than I intended.

He looked up, his eyes red.

I glanced at Killian, who had already noticed the change in my expression.

"Daphne, don't."

"I just want to talk to him."

"You can talk to him here."

I paused, then looked back at Finn again before grabbing him by the arm. "Come on, We're leaving."

Killian stiffened instantly, his dark eyes narrowing like a predator tracking prey. He pushed off the doorframe, his hand coming out to block my path. "Daphne, don't go anywhere with him. Let him cry on the curb. And if you must go, I'll come with you–"

"No, Killian." I cut him off, my voice firm. "I can handle this on my way. Just..watch Sophie. I'll be right back"

Killian looked like he wanted to argue, his jaw working as he stared at me for a long moment before nodding. "Fine. But if he touches you again, call me.I'll throw him off the balcony."

I didn't answer. I just grabbed a still-sniffing Finn by the bicep and dragged him down the hall, into the private elevator and all the way down to the quiet lobby of the building.

Once we reached the lobby, I released Finn's arm and turned to face him. "What is it?"

He sniffed and rubbed his nose. "I don't know where to start."

"Try telling the truth. It's a good place to start."

"Daphne, I miss you." he choked out, his voice thick with tears. "I know I messed up. But you have to understand that I've been in a lot of pressure. Pressure from the company, the investors, and the wedding. I wasn't thinking straight with Vanessa,I swear it. It meant nothing to me. Nothing."

"You should have thought about that before you did what you did."

"I know. But It's you I want, not her." he cried out, desperate. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the diamond ring that had caused this madness. "Daphne, please. We've been through six years together. You know my heart. Claim what belongs to you and come home with me. We don't have to throw away everything we've built because things got difficult."

"Things got difficult?" I repeated." Is that what we're calling it now?"

He swallowed. "It's been a rough patch and that's all. We've had problems before and we got through them. We can get through this too."

A rough patch.

That was what he had reduced everything to. The lies, the betrayal, the humiliation. All of it was just another difficult period in our relationship that we could supposedly overcome If I would stop being so stubborn.

"Finn..." I started, but just then, the lobby door swung open.

We both turned, only to find Vanessa standing in the doorway.

Finn froze.

Vanessa looked between us, her mouth fell open. "Are you fucking serious?"

She stepped into the lobby, her expression shifting from confusion to outright anger. "Finn, are you kidding me?" she burst out. "You kept me sitting in the car for hours just so you could come here and see another woman?!"