Her bright tone as false as her words, she said, “I gotta go, Damen. My aunts are trying to call me via Skype – I hadn’t been able to reach them all day.”
She was lying, Damen thought. But could he blame her? She might have changed, but she had not changed towards him. It was him who had changed towards her, and he didn’t know how to find his way back to what they once were.
“I’ll let you go then. Have a good night’s sleep. I will be back tomorrow as early as I can.”
“Thanks.” She ended the call, feeling like she had ended it as if she had only been talking to her boss and not the man she was supposed to marry.
When Damen put the phone down, he didn’t let himself think. He simply reached for the envelope and started to read.
By the time he finished reading the entire blog that had exposed Mairi’s childhood diary, he was sick to his stomach.
He called Mairi’s bodyguard, asking for a report for the first time. “Did she leave the house today?”
“Yes, sir.”
She had lied.
She had lied.
“And where did she go? Who was she with?”
The bodyguard answered in an inflectionless voice, “She had dinner with Stavros Manolis.”
****
“You must wake, Ms. Tanner.”
It took a while for the housekeeper’s voice to rouse her from a deep and heavy sleep, and a few more moments for Mairi to sit up and realize that something was wrong. The woman could not look at her straight in the eye. Why?
“Ms. Tanner, you are requested to leave the premises immediately.”
Mairi stared at her blankly.
The housekeeper’s voice became more strained. “The order came from Mr. Leventis himself.”
“W-what? I don’t understand.”
“I’m sorry about this, Ms. Tanner. But you really have to leave now. I heard him…” The housekeeper wringed her hands. “I heard him talk to the head of the house’s security. If you are not out of here in ten minutes, he would have you escorted out of the premises even if it means you would be abandoned on the street in your bedclothes.”
She shook her head, feeling like she had woken in a horrible alternate reality. “What’s going on?”
“You must go now, Ms. Tanner. He’s in a very bad mood. Your possessions will be sent to whichever address you provide us with. But now, Ms. Tanner…please. It is for your own good I tell you to leave now.”
Shocked and disoriented, Mairi found herself following the anxious-looking housekeeper’s words. She changed hastily, grabbed her phone, and headed to the front door, bumping into the head of security as she stepped out of the house.
Mairi wanted to throw up, realizing that what the housekeeper said was true. He had been about to throw her out. She could see in his face that he wouldn’t like doing it but he would do it because—
Because Damen Leventis had ordered it.
She shook her head. No. There was a mistake. There had to be. It might be another of Esther Leventis’ ploys to get to her, to make her leave Damen.
She stood her ground and lifted her chin. “I won’t leave.”
Her bodyguard – rather, her former bodyguard – looked at her with a horrified expression on his face. “It’s Master Damen’s order.”
Mairi whitened a little at the words, but she said doggedly, “I won’t believe you until I hear it from—”
A figure emerged from the shadows.
Damen.
“Get out of this house.” His face was hard and cold. “Is that clear enough for you?”
She whispered, “What?”
“GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HOUSE, YOU GOLD-DIGGING BITCH!”
Mairi stumbled back at the fury in his voice. “Damen, what are you—”
“What I am is a f**king fool to think you loved me!” He laughed bitterly. “And now, because you think I might not remain rich with my business struggling—” Damen cursed. “Problems that you have caused – you think you need to find yourself another Greek billionaire?”
The look in his eyes made Mairi want to die.
Damen despised her.
Damen found her vile.
The tears fell fast and furious, leaving her half-blind. She caught sight of movement, Damen stalking towards her. And then he was right in front of her.
The smell of liquor hit her.
He was drunk.
And then he was snarling at her, “I know everything now! I know that you’re a f**king psychotic bitch who’s always wanted to marry a Greek billionaire.”
She wiped the tears away. “Damen…” Her voice cracked when, behind Damen, she saw that a crowd had formed inside his house and all of them could hear everything he was saying.
“Please, Damen—”
“I can’t believe I chose you over a real lady like Alina.”
His words didn’t slash her heart like a knife stab.
Instead, his hateful words worked like a hammer that crushed her heart into pieces, the pain spreading to her lungs like wildfire and preventing her from breathing.
She hurt so much she could not breathe through the pain.
“Go back to Manolis. He can have my leftovers. I had you in every way—”
Mairi slapped him. “STOP. Please, please, please stop.”
The force of Mairi’s slap somehow made the haze of liquor-induced rage disappear, and Damen stiffened, feeling like something had possessed him in the past few minutes.
Mairi was sobbing.
The sound tore through him, but Damen steeled himself from being conned by Mairi again. It was an act. It was just a f**king act. “I won’t give you another warning. If you’re not out of here in five minutes, I will have you charged for trespassing.”
And yet she stayed there, crying. God, she was still crying, like he had broken her heart when he knew now that she never had a heart.
“Four minutes.”
He walked away.
She was still crying.
He got into his car, slamming his door shut.
He shouldn’t hear her anymore, but why was it that he was still surrounded with the sound of her tears?
Damen called the head of his security. “If the five minutes are up and she’s still not gone, get the police to arrest her.” Ending the call, he looked at his chauffeur and snapped, “Drive.”
“Where to, sir?”
“Just f**king drive.” It didn’t matter where. His heart had found its home in Mairi, and now that the truth was out, he didn’t f**king care where he’d end up. Her betrayal had left him lost forever.