Forbidden Fate (Crowne Point 3)

“I thought you would leave. I thought you would…I didn’t think you would stay.”

Her brow furrowed. “That doesn’t explain why.”

She was finally leaving.

I should let her leave.

Why the fuck couldn’t I let her go?

The warnings I’d received, the portents of what would happen if Snitch got pregnant with my baby, hung like a storm cloud.

Even though I knew it was best… Every time I tried, I failed.

As she waited for me to form a response, some kind of answer that would make everything I did okay, the minutes stretched on, counted by the beeping of the hospital machines. Finally she exhaled, turning to leave.

Snitch.

Leaving.

Fuck.

“My grandfather was going to lock you up!” I yelled at her back.

She paused, slowly turning around. Distrust clouded her beautiful walnut eyes.

“That’s not…he can’t do that. I haven’t done anything.”

But I saw the doubt in her eyes. She knew my grandfather. She knew his reputation. She knew what he could do.

“He knows about your past, what your mother made you do. He gave me a choice, Snitch. Keep you as a mistress, let you go, or he’d cash in some favors and lock you up. I would never…” I exhaled. “I’d never ask you to be my mistress.”

She blinked. “How many other lies are you telling?”

“What?”

“How many other lies are you telling, Grayson? I thought we shared everything, but you…” She trailed off, blinking rapidly in the way I knew meant she was trying to stop herself from crying.

I wanted to go to her.

Hold her.

I opened and closed my fist until my nails seared my palm.

“Like you told me about West?” I said it before I could stop myself. “I…fuck, Snitch. I…didn’t mean—”

When her eyes found mine again, whatever vulnerability had been there was dead.

“Then let me leave,” she said, voice iron. “Let me disappear. I’m leaving Crowne Point. That was your whole plan, right? Break my heart? Force me to leave?”

She shot me a withering, hurt look, then turned to leave. She didn’t listen when I called her name. She just. Kept. Walking.

So I sprinted, cutting her off at the door, slamming my hands in the frame to lock her in the room.

She pushed at my chest.

And pushed.

“Get out of my way.”