Chapter 8
559words
After so many gut punches, I couldn't tell if I was numb or just used to the pain.
But I needed to hear it from him. Directly.
I knew he wouldn't pick up if I called. And I didn't want threats to be my last resort.
I texted him:
"Meet me once, or I'll recant everything I said about the gun."
An hour later, Dominic Hayes stood at my hotel room door.
The old fire in him had died.
Even his perfect suit couldn't hide how beaten down he looked.
The second I saw him, my eyes filled with tears.
I moved to embrace him, but he held up a hand to stop me.
He brushed past me into the room, not even meeting my eyes.
Silently, he lit a cigarette, his brow furrowed deep.
"I'm here. What do you want?"
I swallowed hard. "You got married?"
"Yes."
Even though I'd braced myself, hearing it from his lips felt like someone had ripped my heart out with bare hands.
"What about me?"
Dominic crushed out his cigarette and turned on me, eyes bloodshot with rage.
"You? Haven't you done enough damage? If it weren't for you, would I be in this mess? You think I can just go back to how things were? Now I have to kiss ass just to stay afloat, and you have the nerve to track me down?"
My throat closed up. I couldn't get a word out.
But he was just getting started, words pouring out like venom.
"Didn't I tell you not to shoot? Why the fuck couldn't you listen? You think playing hero makes you special?"
"Olivia Blackwood, you think way too highly of yourself. You were a tool. A means to an end. Yet you convinced yourself you were my woman."
"You were damaged goods when I found you—used up by that piece of shit stepfather. I overlooked it because you were useful. Now we're done. Why can't you let go?"
"Look at yourself. Prison aged you ten years. You used to have looks that made me give a damn. What do you have now?"
"You can't even pass a background check. What the hell do you expect from me?"
"Love? There was never any love. Wake the fuck up."
Something inside me died. A wasteland where my heart had been.
Just me standing in the ruins, ready to collapse.
He walked out as rain began to fall.
I stood at the window, watching his silhouette disappear into the downpour.
He'd rather get soaked to the skin than spend another second with me.
Suddenly, I couldn't cry anymore.
I don't know if I was too numb or if my heart had finally died completely, but I felt as still as a frozen lake.
There had been signs all along.
I remember when Stella Parker first appeared, Dominic couldn't take his eyes off her.
She'd smiled, all grace and class. "From now on, my brother and I will repay your kindness together."
Dominic had dropped his hand from my waist, leaned toward her, and smiled like a man seeing the sun for the first time.
"Having your brother in my corner was my good fortune."
The way he looked at her then—with a warmth he'd never once shown me in all our years together.
