Page 16 of Vow of Vengeance
"What did I do?" He grins, taunting me. "Make you crave pain with your pleasure? Make you come so hard I won your body's loyalty?"
It's not the pain that bothers me, and the fact he can't wrap his mind around that pisses me off.
"You said we were going to share control!” I snap. “But you didn't give me a chance to last night, you just twisted me all up and took what you wanted."
He shrugs, conceding to my point. "Fair. But I only did it because I thought we were past him."
"Vin?" I laugh at the way he cringes in disgust. "You mean myhusband? The man I was married to for years?"
"You were never married." Declan says, matter of fact.
For a minute, I think it's an attempt to gaslight me into thinking that my sanity is in question, but he shakes his head. "Not legally, anyway. There's no record of your marriage to Vincent D'Anerio."
I stare at him in silence for a minute, trying to understand exactly what he is getting at.
"You're lying."
"Nope." He pops the P obnoxiously. "I don't know what he had to gain by making you think you were married, but whatever you guys did, it wasn't a legal arrangement."
My chest hurts, suddenly feeling heavy with the ridiculous claim he's making. Vin didn't stand to gain anything by lying to me about marriage. We had a whole ceremony, with a catholicpriest and everything. I signed a marriage certificate... Marissa signed my marriage certificate as a witness, for fuck's sake.
"You must be wrong." I argue. "Or mistaken. We were married for years."
"Oh," Declan chuckles. "I found your deleted socials. I know you had a ceremony and wore a white dress that made you look like the sacrifice in a movie about Satanic cults. It was an extravagant wedding, especially given that it was all a ruse. You made a beautiful bride, but I'm telling you, it wasn't real."
Declan could be speaking a foreign language for all the sense that his words are making. Part of me thinks he must be messing with me again, trying to destroy any connection I have to Vin. He didn't stand to gain anything by faking our marriage.... other than shutting me up.
I wanted the ring, the marriage, the house and the baby. I wanted all the things he didn't, the things I never had growing up. I wanted stability, his vow of faithfulness. I brought it up so many times only to be brushed aside, to be told that they were things I shouldn't be worrying about at my age.
The last time we fought about it, I told him if he couldn't give me what I wanted, I'd go find it elsewhere.
A week later, he popped the question, and we agreed it didn't make sense to wait long.
Would he really have pretended to marry me just to get me to stay?
nine
Declan
"Ialreadysawthis."Soren says, swallowing the disappointment she doesn't want me to see. She looks away from the computer, the images of her husband fucking other women.
It makes anger simmer inside of me, how devoted she seems to protecting his memory. It's why I don't feel too bad about how perfectly I'm going to shatter the illusion of him.
"No, you didn't." I tell her, gripping her chin lightly and pointing her face back to the screen. "Not like this."
"He cheated on me." Her voice is hollow, carefully void of emotion. "I know."
Something about the way she says it makes me think she's known for a while... for longer than the few days since I accidentally left his indiscretions up on my screen.
"You knew?"
"Deep down," she sighs, pressing her fingertips into her temples like that will erase memories she doesn't care to hold onto. "I knew something wasn't right. He never wanted to touch me anymore. It's like I repulsed him."
"It wasn't you." I assure her, weaving my fingers through her hair and pulling her head closer so I can press a kiss there.
One day, I will make her realize that her husband was a fool. One day, she will recognize that he was a goddamn idiot for not treasuring her when he had her.
But that day isn't today.
