<
Declan didn’t hesitate. He started banging his head on the ground.
*Thump, thump, thump…*
Blood quickly seeped from his forehead, flowing across the floor to my feet.
He kept going until he passed out, collapsing to the ground.
“Aria, is this… is this enough for you to forgive me?”
let out a soft, mocking laugh.
“Forgive you? Oh, I do! But you killed the little dog my parents gave me before they passed away.”
“I just wonder if *it* can forgive you.”
I stopped paying him any mind, taking Liam’s hand and walking up to the second floor.
He was blocked by the security guards but refused to leave.
In the middle of the night, the soft moans and whispers of our intimacy drifted down from upstairs.
Declan watched our silhouettes, embracing and kissing, through the sheer curtains of the second–floor window.
But he was helpless. His heart was filled with bitter anguish.
The sounds of our lovemaking continued until the sky began to lighten with the first blush of dawn.
Declan stood there, unmoving, like a statue.
He finally understood. He had lost me completely.
Like a zombie, he left Liam’s house and returned to his own home.
A crowd had gathered at the entrance again.
Per Declan’s instructions, Seraphina and her children had all been kicked out that very night.
A menacing group
of burly men, who had been lurking, quickly surrounded him as he approached the villa.
“You live here? Do you know a Seraphina Vance?”
Declan looked at them suspiciously.
“Why?”
“That woman paid us to set up
an underground auction for explicit photos of her and some guy.”
“Once the woman in the photos bought them back, she told us to say her card didn’t work, whether it did or not, and then beat her
“Can you believe there’s work like that? The woman promised us five million, but there’s still four million outstanding…”
Looking at the photo of Aria Maxwell on the big man’s phone, Declan’s heart twisted violently.
So that’s what happened back then. And he had heartlessly abandoned her!
“Hey, aren’t you the guy in the photos?”
“You’re her lover, right? Pay us our money!”
up.”
How could Declan possibly pay the men who had beaten Aria Maxwell?
Seeing they wouldn’t get any money, the big men furiously started swinging punches at Declan.
One punch landed squarely on his face, sending blood gushing onto the big man’s face.
The man wiped his face.
“Damn it, what bad luck!”
He was kicked to the ground by the burly men, then kicked around like a soccer ball.
This time, he was the one no one cared about.
My marriage to Liam was initially just a way to anger Declan.
But Liam took it incredibly seriously, personally designing the wedding dress and the venue.
Every relative and friend who attended underwent background checks.
He wouldn’t allow anything that could possibly harm me.
On our wedding day, he made no grand vows.
He simply looked directly into my eyes.
“Aria, I know why you divorced him, and I’m getting a vasectomy tomorrow.”
He had helped me; I didn’t need to tie him down forever.
I stopped him.
