Chapter 4

Damian stood at the far end of the corridor, his eyes bloodshot and fixed on me.

He charged forward and pulled the trembling Lila behind him.

"Why would you talk to her like that? She hasn't done anything wrong."

I laughed.

"She hasn't? Then I suppose I'm the one at fault. I waited three years for you, and I got to watch you walk your mistress into my house. Was that my mistake too?"

"She's not my mistress," he snapped. "Lila and I have never crossed that line.

"I only want to give her a proper place at my side. I never said I wouldn't marry you too."

For a moment, all I could do was stare at him.

"Do you think every woman alive should orbit you? You want two wives. What makes you imagine you're worth it?"

He looked wounded, even disappointed.

"You weren't like this before, Vivi. You've become impossible."

"You made me this way."

Watching him shield Lila drove a blade through my chest. The pain nearly took my breath, but I kept my face empty.

"My wedding is tomorrow, Damian. From now on, stay out of my life."

"No."

He seized my wrist hard enough to grind the bones together.

"I won't let you marry Adrian. Do you hear me? I won't allow it."

"Let go."

"Never. You're mine. You always will be."

Adrian's voice came from beside us, cold and quiet.

"She's my fiancée now."

He pried Damian's hand loose and drew me behind him. The smile stayed on his lips, but the warning in his eyes could have stopped an army.

"Control your hands, Cross. Control your woman too."

His gaze flicked over Damian with contempt.

"Stop tearing around like a rabid dog, biting everything you can't have."

The insult destroyed whatever restraint Damian had left.

Roaring, "I'll kill you," he rushed forward again.

Adrian's guards caught him before he got close. Damian struggled uselessly in their grip, but his eyes never left me. Emotions I couldn't read anymore churned behind them.

"You'll regret this, Vivian. You will."

I almost smiled.

Regret?

That word had dropped out of my vocabulary the moment Damian came home with Lila at his side.

I slipped my arm through Adrian's.

"Let's go."

On the drive back, Adrian spoke without looking away from the road.

"Did you love him?"

I watched the city slide past the window and didn't answer.

Had I loved Damian?

Maybe. For three years his name had been something close to a religion to me.

Now that faith had collapsed.

Adrian's voice softened, but the confidence under it didn't.

"Someday you'll love me."

I turned toward him. He drove with complete focus, his profile sharp and striking in the passing light.

I didn't know what the future held.

I knew only that I'd never turn back.

The wedding morning arrived under a cloudless sky.

I stood in front of a mirror in the gown Adrian had flown in from Paris overnight. He came into the room and wrapped his arms around me from behind.

"Nervous?"

"No."

"I've put men on Damian. He isn't getting out today."

I nodded.

We held the ceremony in a private chapel outside the city, with heavy security and only a handful of family and friends in the pews.

I walked down an aisle scattered with white roses, my hand resting on my father's arm.

Adrian waited at the altar in a white tuxedo. When he saw me, he smiled and held out his hand.

I put mine in his.

The officiant's solemn voice filled the chapel.

"Adrian Blackwood, do you take Vivian Vale to be your wife, in sickness and in—"

"I do."

Adrian answered before the question was finished.

Warm laughter rippled through the pews.

The officiant turned to me.

"Vivian Vale, do you take—"

"She does not!"

The shout cut through the vow and the wedding both.

The chapel doors crashed inward.

Damian stood in the entrance, dressed head to toe in black, a detonator in one hand and his eyes burning red.