Page 127 of Born for Lace

“I told you he grows bored of people, and that he would ruin you,” he says, brows knotting above a stern face. “It was just… You meant nothing to him.”

“Stop.” Short breaths chop from me. I reach out a shaky hand, looking for something to grasp, but find only empty space. “I don’t believe you.”

“I’m sorry, Dahlia. You should?—”

“Stop! I don’t believe you. He said he wanted to provide for me. You were there. You heard him.” I shake my head—stop, stop, stop, please stop—fighting anger, wrestling with anguish that digs into the chamber Lagos the Rogue resides in.

“He doesn’t want you,” he whispers.

“You’re a liar!” I launch myself forward and lash out, punching him and wailing, beating my pain against his chest. “You’re a liar! Why are you lying? He loved me!”

“Did he tell you that?”

Tomar catches my fists, and from behind, someone grabs my thrashing arms, hauling me from the man I don’t know.

I don’t know you, Tomar.

“He loved me!”

“He barely knew you, Dahlia!” he spits out, voice shaking because heislying, the effort of his deceit weighing on his tongue. Or is it sadness… Is it goodbye?

I hate him.

“I hate you, Tomar!” I cry at him as Robert handles me, possessing my upper arms and pulling me back to the vehicle.

“Gentle with her!” Tomar barks at Robert, pretending to care, taking a single step closer, seeming distraught.

Which is another lie.

You’re a liar, Tomar.

“I will be,” Robert says curtly. “She’s pregnant. She needs to settle down. I’ve got her. You should leave now.”

“I can’t. I have to speak with you, Robert,” Tomar calls over to him. “I can’t leave like this.”

“No Xin De in the community!” Robert booms. “Leave.”

“It’s not safe.”

“Iwill come back to speak with you. Just me. Wait here.” Robert forces me into the back of the vehicle, belting me in while my body vibrates and my lungs heave.

I lose focus to my unrelenting anguish. In a bleak haze of misery, I feel the car moving, but I focus on my lap, trying to keep a grip on the truth. Hold it. For dear life.

“Even after this. I know how to care for you now. What a young Common girl needs. I want to provide for you. You’re mine.”

I mutter his words to my knees, rocking back and forth. “It's been different. Different he said.He’sbeen different. You and me. The house… He liked it. He liked me.”

I cover my face with my palms and sob into them, because it doesn’t feel right. A deep, drowning disorientation drills into my brain, damaging it. Making me second-guesseverything…Lagos. Me. What happened? I didn’t make it up.

We connected.

It was real. Deep. Beautiful. Wild. One that affected me irrevocably. His possessive touch, his warm lips, his claiming words. The roadhouse, the farmhouse. And the gentle way he touched me when he could so easily have broken me beyond repair…

Like now.

Like right now.

ChapterThirty-Nine

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