Treachery

Son of a bitch.

I know there’s more to this. There has to be because now that I know that part of the story, I realize that all the threads of this fucked up web he’s weaved around me have aligned far too fucking perfectly.

“Tell me the rest.”

Glancing over at me with a concerned expression, he asks, “Are you sure you want to know that?”

“Tell me the rest!”

“Maybe you should sit down.”

“Goddamn it, Ta

“Fine.” He lifts his hands to the top of his head, pacing the other side of the kitchen, looking too damn good while doing it.

Meanwhile, I’m sure my face is the color of a damn tomato, my teeth grinding so hard I can hear the enamel crack.

“I drafted the prenuptial agreement specifically to trap Clayton. He couldn’t admit it was a sham marriage without owing you a shit ton of money. But I also wrote it so that if either of you cheated, the terms would favor the other person.”

I remember all that. Had been happy to see it when I signed. I was so crazy at that point in time that I felt secure in the fact that Clayton was taking the marriage seriously enough to go through the effort of having it drafted. He was looking out for both of us since my world was falling apart as my mother died.

But to find out Ta

“I’m going to be sick.”

Leaning against the refrigerator, Ta

My eyes lock to his. “There’s more?”

Quiet for a few seconds, he nods his head after his eyes search my face. “I was protecting you in the only way I could.”

“That doesn’t sound like protecting me!”

“In the only way I could,” he says again. “I knew you were too good a person to ever cheat on your husband. And I knew Clayton was a piece of shit with a wandering dick. I told him he couldn’t have sex with you more than once while married, and only the one time to make the marriage seem legit. I didn’t want him doing that to you, and I couldn’t fucking handle the thought of him –“

He stops, bites the inside of his cheek and shakes his head as if hiding something.

“But I also knew proving Clayton was cheating would be a big fucking problem when the time came.”

This can’t get any worse. He can’t possibly be any worse. Not only did he make another man marry and divorce me, he trapped me in a celibate marriage for three fucking years! For what?

How can anybody do this to another person?

“What did you do, Ta

He looks away, his jaw tight again when he looks back at me.

“Clayton’s secretary is a woman I paid to seduce him. I knew I’d be telling him to file for divorce within a few months and sent her over to apply for the job, which I knew she’d get, and then sleep with him so I’d have a reliable witness I could give to your attorney to use against him. If you had just taken the deal, I would have dropped the guy I paid to lie about you and then sent her in with the recordings she has on Clayton so that you walked away with millions.”

Oh my fucking God.

This isn’t happening.

This can’t be happening.

“If I’d just taken the deal,” I scoff, like any of this is my fucking fault.

He shrugs as if it’s a given I’d screwed the whole thing up.

“I can’t believe you did this.”

“There’s a reason,” he says.

“I don’t give a fuck about your reason. There is no fucking reason you can give me that will make any of this okay.”

Tears are streaming down my face, hot and salty, my eyes burning as I fight like hell to blink them away.

“I can’t even look at you right now.”

He steps forward. “You can’t leave here, Luca. It’s not safe.”

A bark of laughter bursts from my throat, the sound crazy instead of fu

Flinching at that, he says nothing as he stares at me. “Just hear me out. If you know why I did all of that, you might understand –“

“I need to be alone right now,” I scream. “But don’t worry. I’ll go to the fucking prison you assigned me when you abducted me the other day. Just do me the fucking favor of leaving me the hell alone while I’m up there.”

Spi

That son of a bitch…

I spin back to him. “Why didn’t you tell me this before having sex with me tonight?”

Ta

That’s what I thought. He’d intentionally taken what he wanted before confessing to everything he’s done.

“I fucking hate you,” I spit. “Everything about you.”

He meets my eyes and says, “I told you that you would.”

“Yeah? Thanks for the warning this time. Except that second part of making me love you again? You can forget about that ever happening. There is nothing you can say or do to ever convince me to talk to you again.”

With nothing left to say to him, I march out of the kitchen toward my room. My body won’t stop shaking, and I can’t hold the tears back anymore.

This entire time I thought my family was cursed, that all my problems were because fate fucking hates me.

And maybe it still does.

Because only a universe that wants me destroyed would be cruel enough to let me cross paths with Ta