Page 348 of A Vicious Love

One last humiliation.

Maybe he had decided to see whether the foolish little Bellemere would still melt for him even after the paperwork had moved on. Had he wanted to prove he could have me even once I was no longer his to take.

No.

I wouldn’t cry in his car.

I wouldn’t give him that too.

The convoy reached the Bellemere Harlan estate just before sunset. The gates opened for us in a smooth iron sweep. My home, at least for however long the documents allowed me to keep using that word.

Jamison’s car stopped at the front steps. He helped me out.

“I’ll be back at seven,” he said, one hand at my waist. “Dinner first. Then my house.”

I looked up at him and smiled because my face still knew how. “Seven.”

He bent and kissed me.

I let him.

The kiss was deep enough that one of the footmen looked away. Jamison’s hand slid to the side of my neck, his thumb brushing beneath my jaw the way he had learned made me soften.

When he drew back, his eyes searched mine. “Rest before then.”

“I will.”

“Pain?”

“No.”

Another lie.

His mouth tightened as if he didn’t trust me, but his phone rang again. He glanced at it, then back at me with visible frustration.

“I’ll see you at seven.”

I nodded.

He kissed my forehead, got into the car, and left.

I watched the convoy pull away from the house. Black cars through Bellemere gates. The iron closed after them. Only when the last car vanished did I turn toward the house.

Inside, the foyer was full of flowers from the retreat return. White lilies. Pale roses. Greenery climbing the banister as if the estate had dressed itself for something happy. My mother was near the drawing room doors.

“Sienna, darling, you’re back. How was the drive?”

I looked at her.

She knew.

The thought came with such certainty that my hands went cold again. My father in his study, surely. Adrian maybe. Julian. Sabine. Everyone who had hugged me goodbye. Everyone who had smiled while I climbed into Jamison’s car.

“Sienna?” my mother asked.

“I’m tired.”

Her expression shifted. “Of course, darling. Go up and rest. We can talk after you’ve settled.”