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Jesus, I’m not very good at this. “Yeah, I have some distant cousins—look, that’s not the point. I’m sorry, Sam. I’m with someone else and I’m happy.”
He’s not convinced, shaking his head like a constant swinging pendulum. “So, you’re not coming back to school?”
“No.”
“Bullshit.” I wince because this is the first time In two years I’ve ever heard him swear. “You worked your butt off to get into Stanford. You wouldn’t just give it up. You wouldn’t give up on us, either. We were going to get married, havebabies,Pop—”
There’s a growl from the other side of the door. It makes us both jump. Tangled up in my web of lies, I forgot, only for a moment, the Devil was outside.
I need to wrap this up. I need to get him out of here, even if it breaks his heart into a million pieces.
“Sam,” I say firmly, speaking slowly and clearly like you would a child. “Listen to me. I am not in love with you anymore. I’m not sure I ever was. Why do you think I never wanted to join you at your parents’ ranch during the holidays? Why I neversleptwith you? Because I was in love with somebody else.”
“No. You were in love with me,” he murmurs.
“I wascomfortablewith you.” I hate how the weight of my words visibly crush him. I also hate how some of them are true.
Sam’s body shakes, his head still pissing out blood, and my heart breaks in two. Of course, I care for him. Not just because he was myboyfriend,but because he represents everything about the life I was taken from. Part of me wants to shrink down, small enough to fit into the pocket of his hoodie and let him take me back to my old life.
Ridiculous, I know.
“I think you should leave.”
He whispers, “You’re a bitch. Did you know that, Poppy Valentina? A cold-hearted bitch.”
The door flies open before I can even think of a reply, and Lorcan darkens the doorway. “Times up,” he growls, glaring at Sam like he wants to twist his head off with his bare hands. His sudden presence brings Sam back to the reality of the situation. “My men will see you out.”
Two men in uniform file in and clamp their hands around Sam’s arms. “Fuck you,” he screams, twisting his head back to look at me. “You lying bitch. You little filthy whore. Well, guess what, Poppy? I fucked Chelsea from our Investing 101 class because your frigid ass wouldn’t put out—”
I’m so shocked at Sam’s reaction that I can’t do anything but gape, open-mouthed as he hurls insults and revelations at me.Chelsea? Chelsea fucking Young with the lip piercing and combat boots?
A growl from my left snaps me back to reality, and I slam a hand on Lorcan’s chest, just before he lunges towards Sam. “Stop,” I hiss, unable to keep the desperation out of my voice. “Don’t make it worse than it already is.”
His heart hammers against my hand, and I keep it there until Sam and the men dragging him round the corner, and his screams slowly fade.
Silence. I say into the darkness of the corridor, “Is he going to be okay?”
“I won’t harm a hair on his pretty little head,” Lorcan snarls back. “But if he ever touches ground in Boston again, I’ll put a bullet between his eyes and bury him under the vegetable patch. I told you, you don’t have a boyfriend anymore.”
I grind my molars together. It does nothing to stop the sudden anger bubbling up my stomach. “You have no right to act jealous all of a sudden,” I hiss, spinning to face him. “You can’t be possessive with me when it suits you, then leave me in limbo for weeks at a time.”
We lock eyes and the heat swirls between us. He looks tired. Dark circles line his under eyes and his beard is unruly. The last time we were this close, he ripped my heart in two by telling me to hate him.
Because it’s easier.
I wish it was.
There’s a moment when I think he’s going to kiss me. When his tired eyes dip to the curve of my lips. But they come back up and pin me with a hard stare. “I do what I want. You should know that by now.”
There’s a lump in my throat. I hate how I’m more moved by his nastiness than I was by having to break Sam’s heart, only to have him tell me he cheated on me anyways.
“Yeah, you do,” I croak. “You did exactly what you wanted with me. You took my virginity, had your fun with my body. Then you discarded me, like you said you would. But instead of killing me—or god forbid, even letting me go—you decided to leave me in your precious museum to collect dust, just like all your other keepsakes.”
And with that, I turn on my heels and stalk down the corridor, holding back the sob brewing in my throat. “So find someone who will let me back in my cabinet. I’ll go back to being your good China Doll.”
Lorcan
She hates me again.
