Chapter 4
Damian
"Stop it, Maeve." I held Emilia's mother's hand so she wouldn't slap her daughter again.
Emilia just stood there, her head hung, her shoulders slumped.
I thought they'd be upset but I hadn't expected this kind of vitriol to be tossed her way. I for sure had not imagined physical violence. Now, I understood why she so desperately wanted an annulment. Her family truly didn't like her. I knew she wasn't close to them, but I thought that was because she was different.
"Mama, I'm so sorry."
"You don't apologize for being married to me," I snapped. "Ever. Got it."
I was conflicted as hell.
I wanted to hurt Bianca, yes, but I hadn't thought through what this would mean for Emilia.
She was afraid of losing her family. She was ashamed of herself.
She thought she manipulated me into marrying her. God, she was na?ve. That had tugged at something inside me, wanting to protect her—but instead, I decided to use her for another few months. Bianca needed to know that there were consequences to her actions and her behavior. No one made a fool out of Damian Archer and didn't pay for it.
This morning when Emilia came in and apologized, offered me an annulment…for a moment it felt like a golden opportunity. But what was the point of going through all of this if Bianca would not know about it?
It had been easy to get Emilia to play along. Did it make me feel bad to use her? Yes. Did it make me feel so bad that I wouldn't? No.
I wasn't one of the good guys. I wasn't trying to be. I got what I wanted and when I wanted it. If you wanted warm and fuzzy, I wasn't the man for you. That was why Bianca and I got along so well. We both were ruthless. I loved that about Bianca. I had loved every fucking thing about her.
How could she have done this to me? How could she have cheated on me?
But now I had a wife, and I would not tolerate her being abused by her mother for something I did. No matter what my na?ve Em thought, the truth was that I had seduced her, I married her, I had sex with her. I did it all to hurt Bianca—I did it because I was angry. I was still angry but through the haze of rage I could see that Emilia didn't deserve this. Not one fucking bit.
"How could you, Emilia?" Maeve had tears in her eyes.
"I'm…," Emilia began and then paused, "it just happened, Mama. Damian was drunk and I—"
"I wasn't that drunk, darling," I interjected, sliding an arm around her. She was small, slim, like a fairy. That night when I saw her naked, I'd been mesmerized by all the angles and gentle curves of her body. It had been brutally erotic to touch her, feel her respond to me.
Now, she stood stiffly next to me, and I felt some remorse for what I did to her. My mother always warned me about being hot headed when I was angry.
Why didn't I just agree to annul the marriage and pretend it never happened?
Bianca came into her mother's office. She was crying and I smirked. Ah, here was why I had insisted on staying married.
"Devi just called me…." She looked at my arm around Emilia. She charged and before I could stop her, she had pushed my wife hard, so hard that she fell on the furniture, crashing against a coffee table.
Emilia cried out in pain, and I saw blood.
"Fuck." I crouched down as she sat up, whimpering. "You okay?"
She glared at me. "Do I look okay?"
She touched her forehead and feeling the wetness and brought it in front of her eyes.
"Damian," Bianca screamed and turned to see her. "You married her? And…you gave her my ring?"
I was tempted to tell Bianca that this was revenge but that would take the whole sting out of this little caper I'd put together, albeit in a hurry and without giving much thought to how it would impact people around me—especially Emilia.
I rose and faced Bianca. God, she was beautiful. Even when she cried, there was something stunning about her. I still loved this woman. Love didn't die just because the relationship was over.
"How could you?" She pounded my chest and I let her, anger, and grief, pour into me. I wanted this; needed to see her upset. And yet, it hurt me to see her in pain.
I put my arms around Bianca and immediately felt the rightness of us together.
"Why would you do this?" Bianca asked.
"It just happened," I murmured.
And that's when I heard a small wince.
Fuck! I'd forgotten about my bleeding wife. Emilia had risen and was not sitting on a chair. Her mother wasn't helping her.
Emilia had pulled out some tissues from a holder and was trying to stem the bleeding.
I tried to disengage from Bianca, but she wouldn't let me. She was distraught. Maeve was stroking her older daughter's back, soothing her.
Emilia wasn't even looking at us, not even expecting anyone to help her, care for her. She looked at the bloody tissue and I saw her grimace. It was as if she was all alone and…fuck me, but she was.
I jerked my ex-girlfriend out of my arms.
I crouched next to Emilia. "Hey."
She grinned at me. Actually grinned. "Can you take a look and see if I need stitches?"
She seemed so calm about getting hurt. No hysterics. Nothing.
I took the tissue from her, wiped the blood, and then checked out the edge of the coffee table she'd banged her forehead against. The corner made of metal had struck her hard.
"I think so," I whispered, shocked that Bianca had hurt Emilia. Actually, pushed her so hard that I needed to take her to a doctor to get stitched up.
"Damian, she's fine. We need to talk," Bianca ordered.
She baffled me. Didn't she feel anything for Emilia?
"She needs to see a doctor," I said.
What the hell kind of family was this and how had I not seen it before? I knew the answer to that because Maeve and Bianca were close knit. Even though Gideon was on the periphery, he was still with them.
Emilia had always been ancillary, seen but not heard and to be honest, hardly ever seen that much either.
"She's fine. Aren't you fine, Emilia?" Bianca's tone was older sister to younger.
Bianca was four years younger than me and at twenty-eight had always seemed mature and capable. Though right now, her younger sister appeared a hell of a lot more stable. She was hurt, bleeding and she was holding up a thumbs up sign. "I'm all good. You guys should talk."
Emilia stood up and swayed. I caught her. "You're not fine."
"I am so fine," she mumbled.
I wasn't going to let Emilia walk out of here on her own, but she was marching away, not a care in the world. I followed her even as Bianca insisted I stay and sort this out. The this being my marriage. I felt like I was in a circus act, and I was the fucking clown.
"Rema, can you order me an Uber?" Emilia asked Maeve's assistant who sat outside her office.
Maeve's assistant made a face. "You have a phone, Em, you can order it—"
"I know, I just can't seem to see the screen and—"
"Enough." I picked up Emilia, bridal style. "I'm taking you home."
I walked out of the office with her, Bianca running after me. "I'm coming with you."
"No. I need to get Em home and call Doc. We'll talk later."
Bianca, thankfully, listened and stayed back.
"The more the merrier," Emilia said deliriously.
Fuck! Was she concussed? When it happened to me, I threw up a lot and felt shaky. Maybe Emilia reacted differently.