I don’t know which one we’re at right now.
“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”
There’s no way to make this better. Not unless I can rewind time. Or bring my daughter back.
But she’s ashes.
“Arabella…” Pausing at the door, she looks back at me with sad eyes. Eyes that try to empathise with how I feel, but they fail because they’re so full of so much. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think he cares how you fucked up. I think that maybe all he might want is his wife.”
Turning to the vanity, I blink away the burn behind my eyes.
You have no right to cry. Suck it up. Take responsibility.
When I drop the slip to my waist without replying, she says, “Casper said he’s coming over tonight. If you don’t want to see him, you need to stay somewhere else.”
I nod my acknowledgement of her words, and when she closes the door, I finish getting dressed.
I have plans.
Georgina thinks he’s coming for me. I know he is. Christopher has never broken a promise in his life. He promised me eternity. There’s no way he’ll go back on that.
Chapter 4
Christopher
“Here.” Leo nods at the drink he’s got waiting on the kitchen c
ounter. “Are you sure you want to do this? She might not be there.”
Ignoring the urge to drown the lump in my throat with the chilled vodka, I push it away. “I’m getting her back.”
A subtle smile lightens his furrowed brow, and as I walk around him to grab something else to drink, Cassie turns to look at me.
Shit, she’s got that soft look in her eyes like I’m some saint she looks up to.
“She might not be ready to come back, and you need to accept that. The pair of you—” Eyes flitting behind me, she narrows them sternly. “—you need to understand that you can’t go in there and force your wants and needs on her. She’ll fight you if you do, and we’re already in the middle of a war. So, let’s not start another battle, huh?”
I swallow down the acid that boils up my throat at her words. Cassie’s right though. I don’t want another fight; I don’t want to start a battle I won’t win.
“Patience, Christopher.” Pulling on my waistcoat, she smiles up at me, before straightening my tie. She takes my left hand and twists the dark ring, looking up at me with certainty in her eyes. “Arabella will come back.”
When she takes a step back, Leo clears his throat. Gaze narrowed on mine, he nods at her. “Don’t you have something you want to say to her?”
“Shut up, Neat Freak,” she snaps at him over her shoulder and gets back to her tea. “If I want an apology that badly, I’ll ask for it myself.”
He chuckles dryly as he stands behind her, hands on either side of her on the counter. Leo rests his chin on her shoulder as one of his hands sweeps up her torso. “Not how this goes, Buttercup.”
With his thumb tracing the almost faded marks I left on her neck, he spins them both to face me.
“Leo.”
Ignoring her protest, he brings them closer. “Christopher?”
Fuck, my heart is furiously hammering as I take in her neck. This close the marks look vicious, even in their yellowing state. When I reach out, I don’t miss the way she tenses and flinches, recoiling into Leo’s body as he holds her up steady.
“I’m sorry, Princess.” My words are a disgusted grit. I’m livid with myself as I stroke her cheek with the back of my fingers.
Nodding shakily, she exhales a long breath it pains me she was holding.