Page 82 of Possessive Mafia Vows

Anticipation, joy, the thrill of knowing that Kyle kept his word and got here as soon as he could all surge through my veins, making me feel giddy.

He came!

My heart starts skipping as Seamus leaves me to go and welcome his boss. I should never have questioned his promises. I should’ve trusted him the way I did the night we met.

Sunrise over the Giant’s Causeway here we come.

I peer back out of the small oval window at the city lights. Perhaps I will ask the steward to open that bottle of champagne after all.

I’m still smiling when I turn back to the cabin to face Kyle.

My stomach plummets like I’m riding the Tower of Terror in Disney World rather than sitting comfortably in a private jet that hasn’t even left the ground yet.

It isn’t Kyle who takes the seat opposite me.

It’s Nick.

He’s wearing a black polo-neck sweater and black pants, his cashmere coat draped casually over his arm as if this were a regular vacation that we’d planned together. His hair is a little ruffled and his cheeks are tinted pink from the chill of the nightair, but the smile hasn’t altered. It’s the same smile with which he greeted me at my first appointment. The same smile that accompanied his unexpected proposal.

And now this.

“Nick?” I can barely find my voice to speak. “What are you doing here?”

I glance at the cabin entrance, expecting Seamus to follow Nick on board, but there’s no sign of him. My pulse is racing through the scenario, trying to pinpoint the exact moment when Kyle and Nick switched places, and failing epically.

“I know you weren’t expecting me.” He places his coat on the seat next to him and fastens the safety belt around his waist as if traveling by private jet is his preferred mode of transport, and one that he enjoys regularly. “Kyle has been otherwise detained.”

He hasn’t answered the question. My brain picks up on the way he skirted around it, waving red flags behind my eyes, but my body isn’t cooperating.

“He finally came to his senses.”

Nick slides his phone from the pocket of his pants and unlocks it, and I watch him. My fingers grip the handles either side of my seat. My throat clicks as I try to swallow.

“Here. This is the message I received from him earlier this evening.”

Nick turns his phone around so that I can read the words on the screen, but they’re just a bunch of jumbled up letters to my confused brain.

“What does it say?” I whisper.

He takes the phone back and reads the message out loud.

“I realize now that Sienna deserves better than the only way of life that I can offer her. She’s an amazingly talented beautiful woman, and I wish her nothing but the best of everything life has to offer her. She told me about your proposal. At first, I was angry, but I can’t stand in the way of her future anymore. Take care of her. You have my blessing.”

He locks the phone and peers at me from across the polished table between us.

I can’t meet his gaze. Instead, I stare at the phone, at the black screen behind which Kyle’s words are screaming at me that he’s a liar.

Liar.

LIAR!

“I-I don’t understand.” My head feels bunged up with tears that I refuse to shed over Kyle Murray, and I sniff loudly. “Why… Why would he do that?”

“He wants what’s best for you, Sienna.” He smiles. “At least on that we both agree.”

I stare out of the window.

My thoughts can’t seem to get a grip on anything and make sense of what’s going on.

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