didn’t recognize herself.
“No,” she protested, even though her throat was so thick she
could barely speak. “I tried to walk out the door. I’d found the
necklace and I took it. I wanted to show it to my dad, but I
never got a chance. When I got to the hospital, he’d already
gone into a coma. I told him that I had it back. That you’d
given it to me. That I was going to be fine. I thought I wasn’t
going to get to say a proper goodbye, and I needed to lash out
because I was going to die otherwise.” Giana couldn’t have
winced. She was squinting, narrowing her eyes. That’s all it
was. “When you called, I was so angry. I agreed to the
marriage because I wanted to hurt you, but overnight I cooled
off and I came to break things off and return the necklace. I
wanted to get in and get out, but when I got here, the JP was
already here. I wouldn’t have had a chance to put it back
otherwise. I swore I thought we could just get an annulment.
That I could just leave, and you’d be fine.”
“The kind of fine that happens after you trick someone into
marrying you legally?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t think you are.” Giana crossed her arms and pursed
her lips. Instead of diminishing the rage simmering below the
surface, Coralyn only seemed to be adding to it the more she
tried to deflate it. “No, there was something else. Something
; besides the necklace. You’re going to tell me what it was. Was
it the money? The power? The control? Or were you still on
your revenge trip? You cursed me and you wanted to follow
through with it.”
“Yes, I did. I did all of those things and thought all of them,