Page 77 of Vow

Haven never once considered that this might be a bad idea. She didn’t even bother to consider that she should at least offer Andino the decency and respect of confronting him somewhere less public, and unattached to his name.

She didn’t think about any of that.

Why should she?

He’d never once thought about her. Not her heart, or that the things he did might hurt her more than he could ever truly understand. He never cared about those things—apparently—so why should she give a fuck about him now?

She didn’t.

Not at all.

Haven climbed the steps of the familiar restaurant, and flung the front door open. She didn’t bother to spare a glance at the changes since the last time she had been there, if there even was any to mention. The girl at podium smiled brightly—she was a new face, clearly, as she didn’t recognize Haven at all—but Haven walked right past her without as much as a hello.

“Excuse me, Miss! If you have a reserva—”

Haven flipped a hand over her shoulder in reply, but said nothing otherwise. She wasn’t here to eat, and she didn’t give a shit about reservations. She didn’t even care about asking where Andino was, for that matter.

She’d figure it out on her own.

Besides, he could only be in one of two places. As he usually was whenever he was in the restaurant. Either in his office, or the private dining section. She didn’t think the man had ever even done a job in the restaurant that was a part of owning the fucking place. Certainly not cooking, or serving a table. Maybe some paperwork, and coming out to shake a hand or two.

That was it.

Haven figured—only because Andino said he was busy—that he was probably in his office. That’s where she headed first, but she had to pass the private dining section of the restaurant in order to slip through the kitchen to get to the back office.

She almost stumbled in her steps when she caught sight of Andino in the private section. Apparently, dining with two other men dressed in dark suits. One she recognized as Andino’s uncle, Lucian. The other man, she didn’t know at all. All she could see of Andino was the expanse of his broad shoulders, and the back of his head.

That wasn’t what made her stop.

Or stumble.

No, it was the fact that his arm was so carelessly tossed around the back of a chair where a woman sat next to his side. Close to his side, actually. Very fucking close.

She couldn’t see much of the woman given her back was turned to the doorway. Just the woman’s long, wavy dark hair, and the low cut back of the dress she wore. The delicate line of her shoulders, and then her profile when she turned to smile at something Andino said.

A soft smile.

It could mean anything. It could mean nothing.

And yet, Haven didn’t think that was the case at all. Maybe it was the way Andino smiled, and nodded back to the woman. Like he was comfortable sitting there like that, and didn’t mind having the woman so close to him. Or it could have been the way he fixed a stray strand of her hair with a chuckle, and then the woman dropped her gaze with a pink tint coloring her cheeks.

Too close.

Too fucking personal.

Too much for her.

Haven blinked.

That rage she had been feeling ever since she left the café blinked out for a fast moment. What was left in its wake was a sharp, stinging pain that sliced through her body with devastating intent.

A pain like no other.

God.

She thought he had broke her heart before, but that was not the case. This was far worse. So much worse, really.

It was like she forgot how to breathe all of the sudden. The floor tilted under her, and the room became entirely too hot. Nothing felt right, and everything was horribly wrong. It was an awful way to feel.