Page 61 of A Vicious Love

“Clearly, you have had too much.”

“Did you seriously, break into my house to discuss my fiancée’s lack of upgraded jewelry.”

Damius turned then. He had given me one strange glimpse of the old monster doing family logistics, and then the monster returned.

“This merger is to be settled. You will listen.” His voice remained calm. “The Bellemere debt has sat under Crow mercy for too long. Harlan interprets delay as weakness. The Bellemeres interpret your reluctance as leverage. Sienna Bellemere interprets your neglect as rejection.”

Something hit my chest. Rejection. Why did that bother me. I tried to hide it. Except he saw everything.

He moved closer.

“You may tell yourself you are noble because you did not touch her at eighteen. But you have kept her in public purgatory for three years.”

The words slid under my skin.

Public purgatory.

Sienna in foyers, waiting. Beside bars, smiling at waiters I threatened. At tables, asking for my hand because I never gave it first.

Now she just nodded.

“You know nothing about what she interprets.”

“I know enough.”

“From your sources?”

“Yes.”

“Your sources tell you when I fuck someone but not what’s in a private debt attachment?”

His eyes cooled. I had pushed too hard. Good. I wanted blood from him too.

“My sources tell me she no longer asks for your hand.”

The cigarette had burned low between my fingers.

I had forgotten it. Ash fell onto the floor.

“They tell me she no longer uses the childish name.” his voice lowered.

“Do not.”

“They tell me she stands beside you in silence because she believes you hate the sound of her.”

“Stop.”

“They tell me you made her useful as camouflage and then punished her for breathing.”

I moved before I thought.

One step.

Damius’s eyes lit with something old and satisfied.

I stopped myself because giving Damius a reaction was exactly what he had wanted. To know if there was blood under the indifference.

There was.