Chapter 34
Ipull away from Zayn and step back. His hands fall to his side as he stares at Daniel with unbridled contempt.
Daniel stops by my side, standing way too close for comfort. I want to move away, especially when Zayn’s eyes narrow dangerously at the minuscule distance Daniel has left between us, but I stay rooted to the spot.
Hostility permeates the air like phosphorus. This is bad. Zayn might have believed I was scared to get my heart broken again, but he will never believe that I chose Daniel over him.
“Now, now, Gianna, you’re not rebuking on our little deal are you?” Daniel says, his hot breath coating my ear as he speaks. Bile hits the back of my throat. My skin wants to crawl off my flesh and get as far away from Daniel as possible.
“Deal?” Zayn asks dryly, his voice controlled. He’s slipped back into his blank mask. His gaze slides to mine, dark and assessing, and I can see the calculation behind his eyes. And something else. A hint of relief, maybe? What could he possibly be relieved about?
“Yes, our deal. My wife and I have decided we will no longer be needing your services,” Daniel says, pausing before he adds, “Professional or personal.”
Zayn’s gaze bores into mine, waiting impatiently for me to explain. I can’t find the words.
“What is he talking about, Gianna?”
My family flashes into my mind as I wipe tears from my face.
Leo. My unborn niece or nephew. How this monster beside me would bankrupt them to get back at me.
I feel the walls closing in on me. How could my family take that money and not tell me?
Especially after knowing I had left Daniel!
Did they not think it would affect me in my divorce?
That I had a fucking right to know? I close my eyes and take deep breaths to calm my racing heart.
“We’re going to counselling and we’re going to fix our marriage,” Daniel answers, impatiently, when I don’t respond to Zayn. “So I suggest you stay the fuck away from my wife.”
My eyes fly open. Zayn’s staring right at me. “He’s blackmailing you.”
Daniel has the nerve to scoff beside me.
“How dare-”
“What does he have on you?” Zayn says, cutting him off like he isn’t even there.
I open my mouth to speak, but I can’t. The truth gets stuck in my throat, suffocating me. I won’t let Zayn buy me out of this mess. It’s my problem to fix, I won’t become his burden.
“Nothing,” I answer quietly.
Anna’s worried face appears at the window, Percy by her side. I give her a silent nod to let her know I’m okay.
“Tell me, Gianna. I can help.”
I find Zayn’s eyes and try to plead with my own. Please, Zayn, let me deal with this.
He either doesn’t get my message or chooses to ignore it. He turns his attention to Daniel.
“I’m going to find out what you’re doing, and I’m going to fucking bury you.”
Daniel, agitated now that Zayn isn’t falling at his feet like everyone else in his life, spits between his teeth, “Just stay the fuck away from us. Gianna is my wife. You have no business coming back here and disrupting our happiness.”
“Yes, your wife looks so happy right now,” Zayn says coldly, nodding sarcastically at the tears streaming down my cheeks. “The picture of happiness if you ask me.”
“No one did ask you.” Daniel glowers, stepping toward Zayn, who looks just as eager to reciprocate. We’re seconds away from fists flying. I refuse to let Zayn get his hands dirty for me.
“Stop!” I cry out, but it falls on deaf ears.
Zayn and Daniel stand nose to nose, the contempt pouring from Zayn’s eyes enough to burn kingdoms into ash.
I hate that I’m causing him this anguish.
Hate that I’ve given Daniel enough power to stand between us when we were finally so close to our happily ever after.
I’ll find a way out of this mess, and it won’t cost Zayn. Of that I’m sure.
I pull Daniel back by his shirt and step between them, placing my palms on Zayn’s solid chest. I feel my fingers tremble before I take a hasty step back, remembering myself, and look up into Zayn’s face. He refuses to look down at me.
“Gianna, tell this asshole,” Daniel growls at my back, no doubt angry that my instinct was to rush to Zayn.
I have no choice but to say the words. My chest burns with every syllable that comes from my mouth.
“Zayn, Daniel’s telling the truth,” I say, fighting to keep my voice even. “This thing between us is over.”
For now I want to add, but I can’t.
Zayn finally lets his gaze fall to mine, and in his eyes I see unbridled fury. But towards who? I can’t tell. I don’t know if he will ever forgive me for this, for taking Daniel’s side and refusing to tell him the truth. It all feels so wrong. I feel like I’m going to be sick.
Zayn knows there’s something wrong. He thinks I don’t trust him enough to tell him. I see it written plain as day in the flash of hurt that sparks like lightning across his face.
“Fine,” he grits out, his jaw hard. “If that’s how you want it.”
He looks back up at Daniel with pure loathing in his eyes. “If you hurt her, in any way, your life is over.”
“Okay, guys, the private party out here is done,” Anna says as she appears suddenly at my side, probably sensing that the threats may very well soon turn into action.
Her arrival breaks some of the tension, and she doesn’t waste any time tugging my arm until I’m following her back toward the doorway.
“Anna, a word.” Zayn’s demand makes her falter. She looks at me sheepishly, handing me off to Percy who’s also stepped outside, before she back-pedals to speak to Zayn.
I don’t find out what that’s about as Percy pulls me inside, Daniel at my back.
“I leave you alone for a hot minute and find you with that asshole?” Daniel grits into my ear from behind. My skin crawls with revulsion and my back reflexively arches away from his presence. “Don’t make me rethink our arrangement and insist that you move back into our home prematurely.”
Cold dread settles over my skin. What can I do if he tells me to move back into our house? I can’t be alone with him. I can’t live with him again, no matter what the cost.
“I hadn’t spoken to him since the day in his office. I had to tell him goodbye.”
“That better have been all it was.”
We re-join the reunion, a loud cheer erupting from a group of our old classmates when they spot Daniel.
They beckon him over to their huddle with raised pints, welcoming him like an old friend even though Daniel never kept in contact with any of them past graduation.
White-hot rage floods my veins. The blind worship given to him because of his celebrity status, regardless of the kind of person he really is, makes me want to fucking scream.
He mutters a furious “I’ll be watching” in my ear before leaving me behind and sauntering over to their table, his trademark grin stretched across his face.
I watch with disgust as the women in the vicinity all perk up at hearing his name called and flock around him when he approaches the group, giving him an ego boost he really didn’t need.
“What arrangement is he talking about?”
I jump at Percy’s voice, having forgotten he was there. He was clearly privy to Daniel’s departing words.
“Nothing,” I say, trying to inject some poison into my words but falling short. The fight has left me. “Let me guess. You’re the one who told Zayn I was here?”
Percy crosses his arms over his chest without a hint of remorse. “Of course I did. Zayn’s been a mess this past week.”
‘Zayn’ and ‘mess’ in the same sentence sounds like an oxymoron.
But then I think of the tired lines around his eyes, the storm of emotions that were so clearly brewing in his eyes behind his perfectly structured facade.
He loves me, and I’m causing him pain. The thought is sharper than taking a knife to the gut.
“I haven’t been living it up in paradise either, you know.”
“I know that, I just can’t figure out why. Anna won’t tell me, either.”
“I just have some stuff I have to sort through.”
“Let Zayn help you.”
I meet Percy’s kind eyes. They’re the colour of chocolate mud cake.
“What’s going on with you and Anna?” I ask, half to change the subject and half because I actually want to know the deal between those two.
Anna likes Percy more than she’s letting on.
I can tell by the way she’s been bringing him up in conversation every chance she can get since I’ve been staying at her place.
He raises a suspicious brow, but I can’t help but notice the spark in his eye at the mention of my best friend’s name.
“I know what you’re trying to do,” he says, but thankfully he humours me anyway. “I like her. We’re having fun.”
“Short-term fun, or?”
“For the moment.”
There’s promise in his tone which makes me happy for the both of them.
Across the room, Daniel now has three women surrounding him, all of which have a hand placed somewhere on his body.
This is the part I can’t understand. He can have any woman he wants here, probably all of them at the same time, judging by the way they’re groping him now.
Why does he have to hold onto me? Why is he so fucking hell bent on keeping me captive in a marriage I don’t want to be in?
As if he can feel my stare, his head jerks up to meet mine and a slow smile spreads across his face, taunting me.
“Ugh, what an asshole.”
“That’s never been a secret,” Percy points out, clearly a nod to me marrying him in the first place. How can I explain to Percy that I was broken and vulnerable when Zayn left? That I was in half a mind and Daniel exploited that expertly? I can’t, so I don’t even try.
Instead, I head to the bar and that’s where Anna finds us a few minutes later.
“All good?” Percy asks her after she tells the bartender that she’ll have what I’m having. I know I should call it a night, especially with two loose cannons roaming around the venue ready to explode, but I’ve always been a sucker for punishment.
“Yeah, everything’s fine.” Anna gives him a pointed look and nudges her head to where Zayn is currently sitting on a deep-seated leather sofa. Percy takes the hint and leaves.
“So what was that about?”
“Oh, you know.” Anna sighs dramatically, reaching for her martini. “Zayn told me that under no circumstances are you to be alone with Daniel. Which I already knew, but he felt was his duty to inform me.”
Warmth seeps through my chest like molten honey, soothing me as it spreads. Even after telling him it’s over between us and that I’m going back to my abusive husband, he’s still trying to look out for me.
“Who is that?” A woman who looks vaguely familiar yells beside me so her friend can hear her over the music. “He is damn fine!”
I know she’s talking about Zayn, even before her friend exclaims, “I don’t know, but I hope he’s not here as someone’s date. I would climb him like a tree.”
Looking around, I notice that more than a few women have their attention trained on him.
Even one of the women who was all over Daniel mere minutes ago has now redirected her sights toward Zayn.
And who can blame them? He looks like a gorgeous, brooding movie star with his perfectly asymmetrical face and tall, sculpted body.
His posture is confident but stand-offish, which only adds to his appeal.
He looks like the kind of man mere mortals don’t stand a chance with.
Even though he’s talking to Percy, who’s now taken the seat next to him, his dark gaze is trained on me.
I stare back at him, locked in a trance. My skin feels electrified. My pulse starts to flutter. It’s always been this way between us, and I’m starting to think it always will be. I take a sip of my drink and rip my attention back to Anna, who I belatedly realise has been speaking to me.
“ -and who the fuck are these skanks?” She nods back in Zayn’s direction and I watch with horror as two women approach the sofas and take a seat on either side of Zayn and Percy.
My drink turns bitter on my tongue when the brunette places a hand on Zayn’s forearm.
She’s pretty. Does Zayn think so? I essentially just broke up with him.
Will he take this woman home? Sleep with her in his king-sized bed that I’ve grown so accustomed to in the last couple of weeks?
Incredibly, just as I thought things couldn’t get worse, they somehow do.
All the blood drains from my face as our song from the first night we ever spent together starts to play, loudly, throughout the room.
I’d recognise the opening bars anywhere, even though I’ve refused to listen to the song in over a decade.
Its melody is branded into my brain with a hot-iron.
Not even a lobotomy could stop me from recognising it.
I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut.
Zayn expertly shakes off the woman’s grip on his arm and his eyes flick back to mine, his jaw clenched, as the song forces memories of us from that night to flood through me.
Suddenly I’m back in my old bedroom, my legs tangled with Zayn’s, my heart overflowing with love for the boy who stole my heart from the very first moment we met.
In present time, Zayn’s face turns as white as mine.
Then the woman next to him leans in to whisper in his ear, and he rips his gaze from mine to look at her.
I don’t wait around to see how the night ends for them.