Crowned by Hate (Crowned 1)

“How long?” I ask, picking up my coffee.

“Too long,” he mutters, taking a drink of his coffee after blowing on it.

“Devon, you can’t—”

“—You don’t think I know that, Isa?” He leans forward, dropping his tone to a low whisper. “And that’s not even the worst of it.”

“Great.” I pick at my donut. I need carbs and sugar.

“Your husband?” he questions, and I pause. “Is my first cousin.” My chewing stops.

Dead.

My breathing even stops because what. The. Fuck.

My hand begins to shake as a deep buzzing sound pierces through my eardrums. “Not possible,” I whisper, dropping the donut back onto the plate like it was infected. Though by this point, I’d take an infection. If a demon possessed my body right at this very moment, I’d submit. Yo, I tried this life shit, homie, now take me home.

“Actually, it is. My mom and his mom are sisters.” He leans back in his chair. “You weren’t the only person who ran away to New Orleans for a chilled life, Isa.”

Chilled life? If his mom is anything like Bryant’s mom then he’s deluded. I wonder idly why I’d never met his mom.

“I’m confused. How can this happen? How does this happen?” I shake my head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, I’m trying to figure out why he married you.”

“Huh,” I laugh, taking a sip of my coffee. “Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with you, Devon. That much I can tell you.”

“Isa… I’ve known Bryant all my life. It’s not something I’m proud of and I don’t go broadcasting our connection—as you know—” he adds at the end, casting a gentle look at me. “But I’ve known him since we were born and he’s not a good man.”

“He’s not that bad, Devon.”

That’s a lie. He’s all things bad, and even though I know Devon has known him longer, I don’t feel comfortable with him talking about Bryant that way.

Devon scoffs. “Really? And you know this… how?”

I don’t. But over the past couple days, I’ve been getting to know Bryant a lot. Slowly but surely his ice wall has been melting toward me, I can just feel it. Whether that ice wall melts and drowns me, we will see, but I also don’t know what he and my father have that needed him marrying me. At least I’m not disillusioned with the thoughts of him being in love with me. I can’t get hurt this way because I have no expectations out of this marriage, I’ve known what was going on from the beginning.

“I just do.”

Devon shakes his head. “I can’t do this with you, Isa.” He stands from his chair and looks down at me, tossing some bills onto the middle of the table. “Unless you can see Bryant for what he truly is, I can’t do this with you. I’m sorry.” Then he walks out and leaves me there alone, gathering my thoughts. I feel like that was it. No matter what, Devon and I will never be how we used to be. We will never be as close as we used to be. That bridge has been burned and there’s no going back from it. Finishing my coffee, I get up from my chair and walk out of the restaurant. Brian is still parked in the same spot and when he sees me he gets out of the front seat and opens the back door.

I smile, not being able to say anything else. “Thanks, Brian.”

14

Bryant

“Are you going to tell her?” Isaac asks, smirking at me from across my desk.

“No.”

He laughs. “I’m not surprised, but I am surprised with why…”

“What do you mean?” I snap, feeling myself begin to get annoyed at where his impending questions are coming from.

“Well, you had no issues telling her anything before. I want to know why the sudden shift in telling her now?”

“Because,” I start, leaning back in my chair. “Because there’s no need to tell her anything. She’s compliant, for some fucked reason. I don’t have to manipulate her.”

“Tragic she actually doesn’t mind being married to you.” My fingers twitch from under my desk and thoughts of watching the life seep out of Isaac’s eyes make butterflies erupt in my belly. This, again, isn’t a good sign.

“Well, who wouldn’t?” I grin, brushing him off while putting a cigarette in my mouth and lighting it. I blow out a thick cloud of smoke and relish in how all my tense nerves relax along with murder plots and alibis to killing one of my best friends.

“Well, I don’t know. I know one girl who didn’t,” Isaac whips back. “Speaking of, she will be at the charity event this weekend, and I take it, you’re taking Isa with you…”

I shrug, taking another hit of the nicotine. “Yeah, and what of it. Hayley wasn’t anything special, Isaac.”

Hayley means jack fucking shit to me up against how I feel about Isa.