In Bed with the Beast (Naughty Princess Club 2)

I do everything I can to ignore the desperation in his voice. He’s just desperate because his ticket for staying in this country is walking out the door.

“You lied to me. Every word out of your mouth was a lie just to get what you wanted,” I whisper brokenly.

“I never lied to you. I may not have come right out and said it but I showed you. Every fucking day I showed you what you meant to me. What you still mean to me. I don’t give a shit about the fucking green card. I don’t give a shit about anything but you.”

I slowly turn around to face him, lifting my chin and making the mistake of looking him right in the eyes. He looks as distraught and frustrated as I feel, but it’s a lie. It’s all lies.

“You should have told me the truth. The minute you asked me to stay here, you should have told me!” I argue.

He throws his hands up in the air in exasperation.

“Really? I should have fucking told you I needed a wife to stay here because my work visa was on its last leg and PJ couldn’t get any more extensions?!” he yells incredulously. “You’re a romantic. You love fairy tales. There is nothing romantic about that shit! You would have laughed in my face and run as far away from me as possible. Admit it, Belle. There’s no way you would have stayed if you knew there wasn’t a possibility of a happy ending!”

“Yes, I would have! You think you know me, but you don’t know the most important thing about me!” I scream, swiping angrily at my tears. “If you would have told me the truth, I would have stayed. Because that’s what you do for someone who needs help, even if it’s someone you barely know. You make sacrifices and you help them when they need it because that’s what a kind, caring person does!”

He actually has the nerve to look guilty, but I don’t care. He’s ruined the part inside of me that cares and wants to help people. He ruined it with his lies and his distrust of me. He ruined it by making me fall in love with him and not giving me every part of himself in return.

“I would have done anything for you,” I tell him softly, shaking my head at him sadly that in all this time we’ve spent together, he just doesn’t get it. “You kept telling me I needed to trust you and I needed to be comfortable with you, but you never had any plans of reciprocating that, did you? I would have married you the day you ordered me to pack up my shit and come here. All you had to do was trust me, tell me the truth, and just ask.”

My voice wobbles, and I know I need to go before the dam breaks loose and I start sobbing uncontrollably again.

“I fucked up, Belle. I know I fucked up. Give me a chance to make this right,” he pleads.

I shake my head at him, reaching behind me and turning the doorknob.

“It’s too late. You’re right. I’m a romantic and I wanted the happy ending. I wanted a man who didn’t lie to me. I wanted one who trusted me as much as I trusted him, and you ruined that. You took my happy ending and you ruined it.”

This time when I open the door, he steps back and doesn’t try to stop me again. At least not physically.

“You told me nothing I said or did could ever make you run away from me. You promised you’d stay.”

Vincent’s voice is low and filled with pain and it kills me. I want to comfort him, but I can’t. I won’t. Not after what he’s done.

I give him my back, not wanting to see the devastation on his face as I walk out the door. It doesn’t matter. I don’t care if he’s sorry now and has regrets. He should have thought of that weeks ago. He should have trusted me, and he didn’t.

“Yeah, well I guess we’re both liars then,” I whisper.

As I walk out the door to the Uber I had waiting, I realize Vincent broke a lot more than my heart and my trust.

He broke my belief that fairy tales can happen to anyone, especially someone like me.

Fairy tales are bullshit, and I was an idiot for thinking otherwise.

Chapter 31: Closed Indefinitely

I’m all cried out by the time my Uber pulls out of Vincent’s driveway and I stare out the window at the passing landscape feeling numb. The only thing stopping me from completely breaking down is the familiar drive to the library. I feel my heart start beating again when I see the large stone structure come into view.