Page 32 of Vow to Hate You

“I’ll stay here,” she bit out, her breasts getting pushed together when she crossed her arms. “I can stay in the city while you go. This marriage will be much more tolerable if we stay away from each other, don’t you think?”

“That’s not an option. I have to go into the office tomorrow. We’re staying in Connecticut for the week. It’sourhome, Natalia.”

Her nails dug into her arm as she listened to me. “At least your house is larger than this. I want my own bedroom.”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

She muttered curses at me under her breath, but didn’t go off like I thought she would. It took everything to keep my eyes on her face as she stalked closer. Fucking hell. She was practically naked, and my mind was going places I couldn’t entertain. Sex was just another way she’d fuck with me.

With a wicked grin, she stopped inches from me. The soft fabric which barely covered her breasts grazed my bare chest as she reached around me to grab the cup of coffee I’d poured for her. Once it was in her grasp, she turned around, raising the mug while walking to the bathroom. I lost the fight when my eyes dropped to her nearly bare ass.

“Thanks for this,” she sang out.

When she slammed the bathroom door shut, I leaned back against the counter. It shouldn’t have been that easy. No way shewould back down.No. She was plotting something. But I could worry about it later.

“Shotgun chooses the music.” She swatted my hand away when I reached for the radio in my own car.

I threw her a look before focusing back on the road. We’d only left twenty minutes ago and still had over an hour before we’d get back to North Oaks. Talie was acting…fine. Happy. Which meant she was up to something. My gut knotted as I kept driving.

Talie finally found a radio station she wanted, then leaned back, keeping her head turned toward the passenger window. Her leg bounced to the beat of the club music, and flashbacks of our childhood flooded me. She used to get so lost in the music that she wouldn’t even notice things around her. Music was her escape, like dancing was for me.

“I want my own car,” she announced. “We’re going to figure things out because if you keep trying to control my life, I’ll do worse than steal your clothes.”

I chuckled. “I’m well aware you want to make my life hell, Natalia.”

She stayed silent, the tension slowly filling my sedan. Three songs played on the radio before she spoke up again.

“When we got married, I thought it would be different.” Her voice was soft, and I barely heard her words over the music. “You promised you wouldn’t follow in your dad’s footsteps. Or my father’s. I believed you. And you lied.”

My fingers tightened on the steering wheel. I wondered when we were going to bring up the past. Being trapped in a car forthe next hour seemed like a horrible time to rehash everything because both of us were going to end up in a bad mood over it.

“I didn’t lie,” I murmured tightly. “Things changed.”

“In the four months we planned the wedding?”

No, it all changed the day before the wedding.I gritted my teeth, debating on how to answer.

“You were one of my friends. We grew up together. You knew how much I hated the life my father forced on me.” Her voice grew hard. “Our marriage was great for our parents. You were supposed to be better than any of the other men my father chose for me. But honestly? You’re worse than them all. Because I never expected it from you.”

Damn. That stabbed me in the chest more than I thought it would.

“If you would have given me a chance to talk to you, then maybe we could have worked through it,” I muttered darkly. “But no. You decided to steal from me and leave without so much as a word.”

“Talk?” she spat out, whipping her head around to finally look at me. “What would you have said? I heard what your father said, Damian. You agreed with every fucking thing.”

“What did you want me to do?” I shot back.

She scoffed. “I don’t know. Maybe tell him it was our marriage, and he had no bearing in it.”

“You only listened to half of the conversation. You have no idea what else was said.”

She paused. “Enlighten me, then.”

I could feel her stare burning the side of my face, but I kept my eyes on the road as the wedding night raced through my mind.

“You’re a married man,” my dad said, his hand landing on my shoulder as he offered me a glass of whiskey. It didn’t matter that I was only twenty. In this world, I became an adult as soon as I joined him in the family business at eighteen.

The reception only ended an hour ago, and instead of spending the wedding night with my wife, my father had instead demanded a meeting. Not that I’d be doing anything with Talie if I was with her. She didn’t want love from me. She wanted freedom, and I was the way to get it.

---