Page 354 of A Vicious Love

“I am being honest. We need the restored merger signed, then everything goes back where it belongs.”

“Signed,” I repeated.

“I have the corrected documents ready. Your family had no right to issue that release. Your father’s office filed the amendment with Celeste’s name under pressure. I was undoing it. I had it handled before the retreat finished.”

“Before the retreat finished,” I said quietly. “So you had weeks.”

“I was waiting for the right time to tell you.”

“You touched me before telling me.”

I heard the moment he understood he had no good answer for that.

“I fucked up,” he said.

“Yes.”

“But this is fixable.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“It is. Baby, listen to me. New paperwork is already done. It puts you back on the merger, restores your position, voids Celeste’s designation, and⁠—”

“I’m not signing it.” The words left my mouth softly.

He went silent.

I stood slowly, because sitting on the floor made me feel too much like the girl he had left outside ballrooms. I wiped my cheek with the back of my hand and walked to the mirror.

“I’m not signing another document agreeing to marry you,” I said.

“Sienna.”

“I signed once.”

“That contract was interfered with.”

“I signed three years ago.” My voice shook, but I kept going. “You had three years to marry me. Instead you humiliated me. You made sure the whole world knew you hated me. Every event, every car, every door, every time you said out loud that you needed whiskey to deal with me. Well, congratulations. You got an upgrade to the blonde.”

“Do not call yourself less than her.”

“You did.”

“No.”

“Yes. Every day for three years, Jamison.”

The line crackled with his breathing.

“I’m done,” I said.

His voice lowered. “No, you’re angry.”

“I am.”

“Good. Be angry in front of me.”

“I don’t want to be in front of you ever again.”