Page 188 of The Contract

I close my eyes as reality crashes over me like a freight train.

She’s cutting ties with me.

And she doesn’t even want to be near me to do it.

And why the fuck would she?

I was a monster to her.

My throat tightens, something raw and unfamiliar lodging in my chest.

I don’t realize I’m still staring at the ring until James speaks, his voice bitter.

“Anyone could look at her and see she fell in love with you.”

A muscle in my jaw twitches.

James scoffs. “And you fell in love with her too.”

The words gut me.

Because they’re true.

I fell.

I fell so fucking hard.

She did too.

And I ripped her apart.

“You fell in love with her and then thought the worst of her.”

James shakes his head, his disappointment cutting deeper than any of Lucian’s fists.

He turns toward the door, Marcus following.

Neither of them say another word as they leave me alone.

They don’t need to.

Because James is fucking right.

I sink onto the barstool, staring at the ring like it holds all the answers.

My chest feels like it’s caving in.

Like I’m the one suffocating now.

Because I was so fucking wrong.

And now?—

I have no clue how to fix it.

The conference room on the seventieth floor is silent.

The kind of silence that crackles with the weight of what’s coming.

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