Page 42 of Earn Me

We look at each other. The silence stretches between us, suffocating in its weight.

"It's true," he says curtly.

"H-How?" My voice comes out shaky, alien to my own ears.

"You signed the papers, I didn't. You only presumed I did."

I try to process this. All this time, I thought we'd been divorced. That our brief, intense marriage had been legally dissolved. That the only thing binding us was the lingering pain of what might have been.

"But you asked me to be your mistress."

"You are one in other people's eyes." His voice is flat, emotionless.

"But I'm also your wife."

"For now."

"Stop that," I whisper.

Because I think...I think I have enough of his insinuations. Enough of his games and half-truths and the way he keeps me dangling between hope and despair.

"I was wrong to believe Dad over you. I was just so guilty about loving you more that I felt I should believe him, because he was with me longer." The words pour out of me, unstoppable now. "But you...you made it so easy, too!"

"Inevercheated—"

"But you were gone almost every night and you never told me where you were going!" My voice rises, years of suppressed hurt finally finding its voice. "You told me you didn't leave on our wedding night but I..." My voice breaks down. "I saw you, Keiran. With a woman. And she kissed you."

Keiran whitens. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I asked you, and you lied!"

He takes a step toward me, but this time I step back. I've spent three years blaming myself for our relationship falling apart. Three years wondering what I could have done differently. And all this time...

"Who is she?" I ask again.

"Bex." His voice is strained. "Her name is Bex and she works—she used to work for your brother."

I don't remember sitting down after that. Actually, I don't remember much, don't remember anything beyond all the things that Keiran told me.

My half-brother used to be a mafia boss.

And so was Keiran.

Giancarlo was another one and oh, there's a fourth one who might want me dead because of my adopted parents.

It's all so confusing, and I'm tempted to laugh and cry at the same time.

Maybe I would have if not for that one thing which I'm sure of—-

One painful truth that's about to rip me apart from within.

"Cadence—"

He tries to hold my hands but I can't.

Not just yet.

"I need some time alone."

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