Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
She shook her head, not wanting to hear a thing. “Please stop—-” He was just telling her all of this because he wanted her back. He wanted to make her pay again.
“Everything, Daria, everything.” Desperation made him want to shake her until she looked up and saw the truth in his eyes. “I talked to your mom, and just talking to her...I’m sorry for what I said about her because I see it now. How you see her, how beautiful she is inside and out—-”
“How could you stoop so low?” she cried out. “Using my mom—-”
“I talked to your mom, and she made me realize how much I love you, how goddamn lucky I am that God chose me—-”
A moan escaped her. “You know,” she said, stricken. “You know about the bottle, don’t you? You went through my things?” She started to laugh, and it was exactly as she had feared. She couldn’t stop laughing. “That’s why you’re here? You realize that the oh-so-experienced whore finally fell, and you can take your revenge—-”
“No,” he rejected violently. The volume of his voice caught everyone’s attention, and Nik did his best to control himself. “Listen to me, Daria. Look at me.” The moment their eyes met, he said, “I love you—-”
She couldn’t believe he could be so cruel. “How can you do this?” she whispered. He knew, God, he knew how badly she wanted to hear those words. And that was the plan, wasn’t it? Make her believe he loved her so he could hurt her again and again and again—-
“I told you I’m sorry,” she choked out. “So what more do you want?”
“I want your love—-”
“You don’t believe that I love—-”
“I believe you now. I believed you the moment I talked to your mother. I believed even before I saw the bottle. The cake. The calendar.”
She wanted to sink to her knees at his words. Oh God, he knew everything. Every stupid little thing she had done because she loved him so much she had accepted being a cunt to him, for the sake of love.
Even Magnolia hadn’t sunk that low.
She pressed her hands to her eyes. “Please,” she choked out. “I don’t want to hear—-”
“Listen to me.” This time, Nik did shake her. He could feel her slipping away from him even as she stayed in his arms, and he knew he had to make her listen now or she would be forever lost to him. “I believed you even before I got hold of the CCTV footage in my hotel. I saw you ask for Housekeeping to change the bed sheets with your blood in it.” His tone became driven. “I believed you even before I met every one of those twenty-eight frogs who were lucky enough to have you in their lives. I made sure they understood how much they had to lose if they ever spoke about you again.” He grimaced. “I also couldn’t use my hands for an entire week because of them.” But if he had hoped his joke would make her smile, he was disappointed, Daria only staring at him with a wan look in her eyes.
“Daria?” He swallowed. “Did you hear everything I said? Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Daria didn’t allow herself to answer. If she let him in just a little, it would be all over. He would make her weak and dirty again. He would—-
“I love you.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Please. I don’t want to cry, so please. C-can’t this be enough?” She pressed her hands to her eyes to keep the tears back. “Every day, I remember, and I’m paying—-”
Nik watched Daria struggle just to breathe, and never had he hated himself more. This, he thought sickly, this was what his cruelty had reduced her to.
“I just have one thing to show you,” he heard himself say roughly. One last chance, God. Let me have it before You give her another prince, someone who would take care of her from the start.
“Just let me show you something and if you want me to stay away...” He fought for control even as the mere thought of not having Daria in his life tore him apart. “Open your eyes, sweetheart, please, just this last time.”
She opened her eyes, and he wasn’t surprised that she did. She had always been the one with more courage between the two of them. The one always ready to be hurt.
He took out his phone and clicked the browser so he could show Daria his company’s website. “My identity’s not hidden anymore.”
She took his phone shakily from his hands, and as she scrolled down, she saw that a huge photo of him...and Daria...was on the site’s homepage.
“I’ve got my photos on every tabloid, every damn gossip website, and it’s how I want it. I wanted...” He inhaled deeply. “I wanted you to know what kind of risk I’m taking. The whole world’s watching right now—-” Nik jerked his head towards the crowd, and that was the only time she realized that unlike before, people weren’t just watching them fight. People were already recording the entire incident because now, they all knew who Nik was.