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“Zoey, I needed to talk to you and you wouldn’t pick up, so if you give me a few minutes, I’ll get out of your way.”
“You deserve nothing from me. And you think I want a big pay out? You know I don’t. You lied to me. For some reason, you decided the best option for getting what you wanted was to come into my life and toy with me and my emotions.”
“I came into your life because I wanted to understand you, see what the best approach was.”
I shake my head. “That’s a lie. You did it to find a weak spot. Tell me, was it horrible having to lower yourself by sleeping with me?”
He recoils. “No. I didn’t. You and me, that was real. I didn’t mean to be like that. I didn’t mean to get involved. But I did because you’re you. Every single thing I said to you was the truth. About you. About how I feel about you. That was all real. And trust me, it would have been way easier if I didn’t like you. If you hadn’t gotten beneath my skin.”
Magnus takes a breath.
“So…what? You’re suddenly going to wave your wand and let me keep this place?”
“You can’t afford the upkeep. And this whole area is set to change.”
“You’re everything I said you were, Magnus. Evil. Greedy. Uncaring. Money isn’t the only thing in the world and you have more than enough. You think you can fix things by giving me money? I don’t want money. You know who always dreamed of a bookstore, who shared her love of books with me? My actual grandmother. A real person. She didn’t have much. No one did in my family, but she held it together. And she taught me to believe in my dream. All my memories are imprinted in this place and that is worth more than all your billions, Magnus.”
“Zoey, things move on.”
“How like a man who has no heart.”
He doesn’t smile as he looks me up and down. “I have one. Pumping blood. And you—”
“You know what, Magnus? You can steal this from me. Scam my money, but Helena Smith, my grandmother, is worth a billion of you and if I didn’t hate you so much I’d feel sorry for you.”
“Damn it, Zoey,” he says, moving up to me. “I’m trying to tell you I’m sorry.”
“I don’t need that from you.”
“Here.” He hands me an envelope. “It’s the money from—”
“I don’t care.”
And before I can stop myself, I squeeze my hand into a fist, and I punch him in the face.
He’s so shocked he falls down and I crush the envelope in my other hand as the pain of hitting him ricochets up my arm.
“I never want to see you again, Magnus. You win.”
And with that, I turn on my heel, rush to my door and unlock it.
Once inside, the lock turned, I start to shake. And I give into the burning tears inside me as I slide down to the ground, the tears falling.
I hate him. I never want to see him again.
All that is true.
Just like the fact I still love him.
I don’t know what I’m going to do.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Magnus
“Whose fist did you run into?” Ryder asks the next morning.
I rub a hand on my chest, where I hurt. Where I haven’t stopped hurting since everything whet to hell. “A girl.”
