Total pages in book: 189
Estimated words: 178200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 713(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 178200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 713(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Shocked and disoriented, Mairi found herself following the anxious-looking housekeeper’s words. She changed hastily, grabbed her phone, and headed to the front door, bumping into the head of security as she stepped out of the house.
Mairi wanted to throw up, realizing that what the housekeeper said was true. He had been about to throw her out. She could see in his face that he wouldn’t like doing it but he would do it because—-
Because Damen Leventis had ordered it.
She shook her head. No. There was a mistake. There had to be. It might be another of Esther Leventis’ ploys to get to her, to make her leave Damen.
She stood her ground and lifted her chin. “I won’t leave.”
Her bodyguard – rather, her former bodyguard – looked at her with a horrified expression on his face. “It’s Master Damen’s order.”
Mairi whitened a little at the words, but she said doggedly, “I won’t believe you until I hear it from—-”
A figure emerged from the shadows.
Damen.
“Get out of this house.” His face was hard and cold. “Is that clear enough for you?”
She whispered, “What?”
“GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HOUSE, YOU GOLD-DIGGING BITCH!”
Mairi stumbled back at the fury in his voice. “Damen, what are you—-”
“What I am is a fucking fool to think you loved me!” He laughed bitterly. “And now, because you think I might not remain rich with my business struggling—-” Damen cursed. “Problems that you have caused – you think you need to find yourself another Greek billionaire?”
The look in his eyes made Mairi want to die.
Damen despised her.
Damen found her vile.
The tears fell fast and furious, leaving her half-blind. She caught sight of movement, Damen stalking towards her. And then he was right in front of her.
The smell of liquor hit her.
He was drunk.
And then he was snarling at her, “I know everything now! I know that you’re a fucking psychotic bitch who’s always wanted to marry a Greek billionaire.”
She wiped the tears away. “Damen...” Her voice cracked when, behind Damen, she saw that a crowd had formed inside his house and all of them could hear everything he was saying.
“Please, Damen—-”
“I can’t believe I chose you over a real lady like Alina.”
His words didn’t slash her heart like a knife stab.
Instead, his hateful words worked like a hammer that crushed her heart into pieces, the pain spreading to her lungs like wildfire and preventing her from breathing.
She hurt so much she could not breathe through the pain.
“Go back to Manolis. He can have my leftovers. I had you in every way—-”
Mairi slapped him. “STOP. Please, please, please stop.”
The force of Mairi’s slap somehow made the haze of liquor-induced rage disappear, and Damen stiffened, feeling like something had possessed him in the past few minutes.
Mairi was sobbing.
The sound tore through him, but Damen steeled himself from being conned by Mairi again. It was an act. It was just a fucking act. “I won’t give you another warning. If you’re not out of here in five minutes, I will have you charged for trespassing.”
And yet she stayed there, crying. God, she was still crying, like he had broken her heart when he knew now that she never had a heart.
“Four minutes.”
He walked away.
She was still crying.
He got into his car, slamming his door shut.
He shouldn’t hear her anymore, but why was it that he was still surrounded with the sound of her tears?
Damen called the head of his security. “If the five minutes are up and she’s still not gone, get the police to arrest her.” Ending the call, he looked at his chauffeur and snapped, “Drive.”
“Where to, sir?”
“Just fucking drive.” It didn’t matter where. His heart had found its home in Mairi, and now that the truth was out, he didn’t fucking care where he’d end up. Her betrayal had left him lost forever.
Chapter 17
“You have one phone call, Ms. Tanner.” Even though the police officer was talking to her, his face was averted. So was everyone else’s in the precinct, affording her the chance to pretend that they had not all been a part of the most painfully humiliating incident in her life.
When she didn’t answer, the police officer pressed gently, “Surely there is someone you would like to call to aid you?”
It was so hard to think.
She couldn’t call her aunts. She didn’t want them to think they had been wrong to let her dream.
She couldn’t call her friends. She didn’t want them to think they had been wrong to believe she was with a man who loved her.
She couldn’t call Ioniko. She didn’t want him to think he had been wrong to trust her when she said that her love would never die.
None of them deserved to be embroiled in her troubles, caused by her own naiveté.
Ms. Tanner?”
A name slipped past her lips.
An indeterminate amount of time passed before she became dimly aware of a commotion, police officers hastily getting to their feet as their chorus of greetings filled the spacious station, made humid by the night’s weather.