“And he sees that. It’s fair for you to go after his job at Pagonis. Go after the profits from his shares. But going after his paintings isn’t right.”
“Why not? How did he afford that studio and all the time and supplies to paint? Hmm?”
“The value isn’t in the canvases and tubes of paint. It’s what he did with it. He’s an artist. A creator. What you’re doing hurts him, Leander.” Like her, Hercules didn’t know how to be happy. He was afraid of it. But when it was only him and his brush, he poured out his soul. He had been in tears when he’d told Ilona what Leander had done.
“Good,” Leander said flatly.
“Really? You have no empathy, no regard for him at all? He bailed me out of jail when you couldn’t,” she reminded.
“And remains complicit in all the things Midas has done to you,” he shot back. “How can you accept that?”
“I’m not asking you to retaliate for me. Do you realize that? You deserve recompense for what Midas did. You do,” she assured him. “But this...blind determination of yours to inflict pain is not healthy. Especially if you think you’re doing it for my sake. I don’t want you to do that, Leander. It makes you no better than Midas if you enjoy hurting people.”
“I’m righting the scales of justice.”
“No. What you’re doing to Hercules is punishment.” It was the twist in Leander’s psyche she had feared could happen.
“You’re really taking his side over ours?” He was more than affronted. Astounded.
“How is it ‘our’ side? You’re not including me in any of this. Remember?” For her protection, he had said, but she suspected it was yet again a trust issue. She had been feeling so close to him. She loved him. But he was stuck in the past, still allowing Midas to dictate who he was and what he did and how he felt.
“Fine,” he snapped. “It’s not our side. It’s mine. So pick which one you’re on and it better be mine.”
A tearing sensation went through her middle. She looked down at her fragrant lamb and roasted potato, appetite gone.
Tragically, she wasn’t as surprised as she ought to be. She had always expected it could come to this. Leander was so fixated on his need for vengeance, he would push aside everything she offered him. Everything they’d made together.
But what had they made? If his revenge was still more important than she was, if it was his everything, then they didn’t have anything.
“I know you can’t see it, but I’m not fighting for Hercules. I’m fighting for you,” she told him shakily, throat going tight. “For us.”
“You’re fighting me. You’re asking me to give up.”
“To give in. A little.”
“No!” He rose and left the table so abruptly, the wine sloshed in their glasses. “And the fact you’re pushing me on this makes me wonder if you’ve ever been on my side. Is all of this a smokescreen?” He waved at their house, the one that had begun to feel like a home. “Because it won’t work. I won’t let you derail me from seeing this through.”
A searing line sat like a spear from her throat into her chest, holding her still as she absorbed how painful it was to watch him lose faith in her so completely. To question her love for him.
“Do you remember what I said I would do if things came down to you or me?” she asked, voice thick with the anguish spreading through her.
She heard him swallow, but she couldn’t seem to raise her eyes to look at him. She couldn’t bear to see how little he valued the heart she had given him.
“I’m not cutting you loose,” he said through clenched teeth.
“You’re asking me to look the other way while you hurt someone I care about.”
“I thought you cared about me,” he shot back ferociously. “I thought you loved me.”
His bitter taunt was the final straw. She felt the break inside her, but she had always known he would break her heart. She hadn’t known it would be an actual shattering sensation in her chest, the resulting pain exploding like a hive of wasps, all determined to sting her to death.
“I do love you. But you don’t love me.” She could survive that, she could. But, “It’s obvious you don’t even care enough to recognize that what you’re asking me to do will damage something in me that won’t be repaired. I can’t be part of this blood feud any longer, Leander. I can’t side with you. For my own self-preservation, I have to side with myself.”
He let her go. She promised to keep her guard detail, but those were the last words they exchanged. She packed and hovered an extra minute, perhaps waiting for him to say more, to give in and beg her to stay, but he had nothing to say. He had come too far to give up now. How could she not see that?
He was furious with her. Forsaken. She had known who she was marrying! How could she desert him when he was on the cusp of vanquishing his enemy for good?
Hercules had come begging her to persuade him to show mercy. Odessa was rumored to be preparing for an extended stay in New York, having become deeply unpopular. Midas, that vile maggot of a man, was gasping for financial air. His reputation was tarnished, associated with Ilona’s false arrest and other corrupt deeds. Leander hadn’t leaked her restraining order for Midas to the press, but that too was being reported as an “unconfirmed rumor.” Even the patent question on Leander’s father’s technology had been resurrected, proving Midas had feet of clay.