Page 110 of Blood & Lace
Slowly, he shook his head.
“Liar!” I snapped. “Don’t stand here in my face and fucking lie to it,” I growled. “I got it at Adam’s place.” I stilled. “Were you at Adam’s place?”
For a minute, Lucero was still. He looked at the shirt before he finally looked at me. His eyes were glassy.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “You were… doing badly, and I thought maybe something was going on so I…” He sucked in a shortbreath. “Well, I met Adam by mistake and he needed help so I helped him, baby. I made sure he was okay.”
“I didn’t ask you to help him!” I screamed at him. “That’s my job. Mine! The one thing I asked you for throughout this whole goddamn sham of a marriage was that you not follow me there. That you leave me one speck of privacy in a sea of you giving me no goddamn privacy!” I panted as I stared at his hunched shoulders. “You have no idea what you’re messing with. What’s going on. You could have set him into an attack. Could have hurt him?—”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Lucero said darkly, his voice flat as he stared at me.
“Not on purpose,” I said as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You don’t get it.”
“Then help me get it,” he said as he rounded the counter and walked toward me. Lucero grabbed my hands and held them in his. “Explain it to me.”
I stared up at him. Some part of me wanted to do just that. But he had crossed a line. I’d put up a ton of boundaries in this marriage and he had hopped every last one. This one, though? This one was sacred.
I ripped my hands away from his.
“I shouldn’t have to explain shit,” I snapped. “That’s the point. You barged your way into my life with this marriage bullshit, and then into my home. Like I wanted you there. Like you belong.”
“You don’t mean that,” Lucero said.
“Oh, I do.” I laughed. “I mean every word of it. Look at how you threw my trust away so quickly. Like it was nothing.”
“You were?—”
My hands slammed onto the counter. “I don’t give a fuck how I was,” I hissed through my teeth. “I told you to stay away. You couldn’t stay away,” I growled. “You think this is the fuckingsitcomEveryone Loves Lucero? Be serious! You don’t know my brother. Don’t know that my father was the one to fucking rape him repeatedly growing up. That he’s fragile and sick. That your barging in could have terrified him into another attack, another hospital stayifI found him in time again.” I laughed harder. “No, you didn’t fucking care about the fact that I had my father hounding me at that goddamn gala. Régis is breathing down my neck. I should have killed him. I failed Adam. I fucking failed him because I was too chicken shit to pull the knife again.”
Every venomous word I spoke felt like my world was imploding. But he’d wanted to know so badly? Fine. He could take it. He could have this poisonous shit.
“I asked you not to do that. Not to follow me there. You did it anyway,” I said, finally, as I shoved myself upright. “You know what that tells me?” I asked, my voice hollow in the penthouse. “I can’t trust you. Not even for a single second.” I sucked in a breath. “Get out. Get the fuck out of my place or I’ll have you removed whether you want it or not,” I snapped. “I’m done.”
I snatched the ring from my finger and threw it at him. This was enough. We weren’t married, it was a joke. A scam. I watched as the ring hit him square in the chest.
“My lawyer will send over the divorce papers,” I said finally. “Sign them.”
I turned on my heels and stormed out of my own place. He needed time to pack, and I needed to get away from him. Lucero was the one person I had slowly started to trust that wasn’t Adam or Cara.
Now? I remembered why I never allowed myself to fall for anyone. Why trusting people was a fallacy doomed to end in my destruction. I was left with more trouble than it was worth. I shouldn't have ever allowed him so close.
My trust was discarded. I’d never make the mistake again.
We were through.
29
LUCERO
A hollow acheformed in the middle of my chest as the front door slammed. Something inside of me shattered. I turned on my heels, and before I knew it, I was at the front door with my hands resting on the wood. All I had to do was go after him.
I can fix this.
The words felt shallow as they echoed throughout my body. There was so much going on. So much the love of my life had been going through and I didn't know. I'd been blissfully unaware like a— "Fucking idiot." My voice cracked as I stared at the floor. I had no right to go after him. Even if I did, what could I say?
Onyx was right. I hadn't thought about anyone but myself. I thought I could get him to love me. If I pushed hard enough, forced my way into every part of his life, then I could show him how good we’d be together. How happy I could make him.
I felt them before I noticed my vision blur. The hot trails of tears streamed down my cheeks as little needle-like sensations pricked the back of my eyes.
