Crowned by Fate (Crowned 2)

Max’s hand dips beneath my bra, but before the tips of his fingers even reach my nipple, the door flies open. We both don’t look. I can’t help the smirk that’s covering my face.

Thank god. I don’t really want to fuck Max, but if I had to prove my point, I would. Bryant knows that.

“Isa, baby, why are you playing without me?” Devon purrs from the doorway.

My body stills.

You can’t act like this or Max will know.

I internally shake off my hate. Or simmer it at the very least. Peeking around Max’s body, I flash Devon a grin. “Jealous because you want to join?”

Devon matches my smirk. “Maybe later. When everyone is asleep. For now, Stacey is here, and dinner is ready.”

I tap at Max’s shoulder, thankful for the distraction. When Devon disappears, I flutter my lashes up at Max. “Later?” This might be harder than I initially thought. Dancing around someone who is flat out lying to me is a distraction.

He swipes the corner of his mouth with the cushion of his thumb. “Yeah.”

While he’s standing there semi-distracted, I dip into the closet and start pulling down some clothes. “Hey, I want to say thank you. You know, for being cool with this. I know it’s not an ideal situation to be in, in fact, it’s pretty fucked up. So I appreciate you not running for the hills, or back to your cabin.” I’m glad I have the confines of my closet to hide my expression, because my facial expression would dead ass be giving me away right now.

I wriggle into something revealing. I opt for short linen shorts that barely cover the rim of my ass and a loose black t-shirt with no bra underneath.

I’m feeling reckless.

Entering back into my room, I gesture to the door. “Ready for family dinner?”

Max’s eyes drop down my body before coming back to me. “Ah, yeah.”

We make our way out and when I reach the bottom of the stairs, Jer and I give each other a low five quickly. I love being around Jerry. He will always feel like home to me.

Turning the corner to the dining room, I see everyone already seated. Now that I know about Stacey and Max, it’s obvious how much they tense whenever one another is in the room. I don’t know how I didn’t pick it up earlier.

I don’t know why Bryant is playing this game. Why doesn’t he just kill them both and get it over with, since that was his specialty.

“Wife.” Bryant smirks from the opposite side of the table.

I slide into my chair, clearing my throat. I need this to end in one week, because then I’m done. I’m gone. And where I’m going, they will never find me.

“Husband.” I reach for the glass of water and take a sip, wishing it was vodka. Dinner is served almost instantly, which I’m appreciative of because I can feel my mood slowly balancing on the off-side. I ignore everyone and cut into my steak, dipping each piece into the creamy mushroom sauce.

I can’t believe he was the one who saved me in the water or that my father had tried to have me killed.

All these years, my dad had told me that someone tried to kidnap me and kill me by throwing me off the boat and that he saved me.

All these years, I believed him.

All these years, I was married to this prick who knew the truth all along. In his defense, we never spoke about that day, but he knew about it, and that makes all the difference.

“Isa,” Bryant says, but I’m too busy slicing into my meat. Fire burns beneath my flesh. Hot, molten fucking lava is bubbling below the surface of my cool demeanor and soon enough, something’s going to need to be cut open to let it all out. “Isa…”

I throw my cutlery down onto the table with a crash and everyone silences instantly. “You know what? I’m not hungry.” I push up from my chair just as Bryant reaches for me. I didn’t even catch him getting up from his chair, he was that quick.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, and for the first time in a long time, I see the worry in his eyes. Undiluted fear.

You know what’s wrong. His touch. I pull my arm out of his grasp. “A word. Please.”

“You two need to stop fighting so much, I’m always walking around with a hard dick.”

“Ew, that’s your cousin…” Stacey snaps judgingly. You can’t judge someone who doesn’t give a fuck, and Devon is the epitome of zero fucks given.

He glares at her, bored. “Not for him, you sick bitch.”

I roll my eyes before leading Bryant out of the room. I’m heading for his office initially when I find my feet taking me to the back door in the lounge room. I know he’s following me from behind, and it should bother me. He should bother me. I know that no matter what, my decision won’t change. I’ll still be leaving, and I won’t be taking him back.