Heartless Hero (Crowne Point 1)

He took a step back, having the gall to be frightened. I smiled wide, doing my best to look out of control.

“I thought you loved me? I’ll give you what you deserve, Ned.” I reached for him and he backed away until he was pressed against a perfectly trimmed hedge.

“You have no money,” he said. “You have no name. You have nothing.” Shock usurped his breath.

While he looked at me like I was an alien, I bit back my smile.

I never thought hearing those words would feel so damn freeing. I thought all my life I wanted to be the best of them, but now it was like I’d just grown wings.

I tilted my head. “So you don’t love me?”

“I never want to see your face again. I don’t even know who you are anymore.”

I acted sad, watching Ned run out of my life, into the paparazzi.

There was still one person who would know who I was, but he’d made it clear he didn’t want me anymore. After my mom’s ominous statement and the blood on the carpet, I was even more confused about his intentions. Still, I was determined to find him. I’d put it all on the line, one more time.

THEO

I found Ned running out of Crowne Hall. This time I wasn’t letting him get away. I wasn’t going to put my faith in anyone else. This time when I saved the princess, it’s going to stick.

Even if I have to give up everything in return.

Thirty-Five

ABIGAIL

I spent all day looking for Theo, magazines in my hand, practicing in my head what I would say. That was the thing with Theo, he always showed up. I had no idea where he was or how to find him.

Discouraged and dejected, I went to the pier where we’d first met.

That was when I found him.

I felt like an idiot for not checking there first. When I saw him, the magazines fell out of my hand, and everything I prepared vanished.

Ned was a bloody heap at his feet, the sand beneath them dark burgundy, like the wine stain on my sheets the first night we’d made love. The moonlight created a shocking outline. His shirt whipped in the dark night wind, exposing the cut muscles of his lower back. He was a god dispensing justice.

“Don’t do it,” I yelled, still too far away.

Theo froze, his fist in the air.

I took a tentative step forward. “You’ll go to jail.”

Ned was barely conscious.

Theo glanced at me, then at my finger. My ring finger. He looked like he was going to rip apart Ned all over again. I should’ve explained everything then, but months—no years—of half-truths spurred me on.

“Does the idea of me marrying someone else bother you?”

“Yes,” he gritted.

“Why?”

“You promised,” was all Theo said.

“I promised not to love. I didn’t say I wouldn’t marry.”

Theo placed his black sneaker to Ned’s cheek and ground, watching me with restrained interest. In his eyes a war blazed.