Chapter 8 #2
“Since when does her presence dictate what you do?”
She took a step toward him.
“You’re not afraid of her, Romeo. So why are you suddenly acting like she has the power to send you running? She should be the one feeling threatened—not you.”
Romeo met her gaze with a hard, warning stare, the kind that made it clear she had crossed dangerously close to a line.
“Juliet is my wife,” he said coldly. “At least for the next two years. As painful as that reality is, and as little as I ever wanted this marriage, I am a man of my word. I made vows at that altar, and I will honor them for as long as they stand.”
His jaw tightened.
“I will not spend the night in another woman’s house, nor will I use another woman to humiliate my wife or punish her for a marriage neither of us wanted. Whatever I may think of Juliet, she deserves the basic courtesy of knowing why I came here.”
His Irish accent deepened around the final words, each syllable carrying an unmistakable sense of finality.
Then his gaze hardened on Yarina again.
“And Yarina, you know exactly how much you mean to me. You know I haven’t forgotten everything you’ve done for me.”
He paused, letting the weight of his next words settle.
“But don’t mistake what you mean to me for permission to cross a boundary.”
His voice remained calm, almost frighteningly so.
“You will speak to me with respect. You will not challenge me in front of my wife, and you will not use my feelings for you as a weapon against her.”
He stepped closer, his expression turning colder.
“Never confuse my warmth with weakness, Yarina.”
His eyes held hers without blinking.
“I can be warm to the people I love. I can also be very fucking deadly when someone forgets their place.”
Something flickered across Yarina’s face.
It vanished almost immediately.
But I caught it.
Her fists clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white.
The words my wife had struck a nerve she couldn’t hide.
I barely noticed.
My attention had already shifted elsewhere.
Toward the empty corner of the room where Raven’s favorite bed usually sat.
It was gone.
The knot in my stomach tightened.
I looked directly at Yarina.
“Tell me...” My voice shook despite every effort to steady it. “...tell me my cat isn’t dead.”
Yarina sighed dramatically.
“Oh...” She placed a hand over her chest in mock sympathy. “Your cat.”
A tiny smile tugged at her lips. “It died overnight.”
She shrugged. “I buried it this morning.”
Her expression became a flawless imitation of concern. “I’m terribly sorry for your loss.”
Something inside me shattered.
There was no thinking.
No weighing consequences.
Only pain and rage.
My eyes landed on the heavy ceramic mug resting atop a nearby side table.
Before anyone could react, I crossed the room in two quick strides and snatched it up.
It was solid and weighty.
Decorated with intricate blue-and-gold patterns.
I hurled it with every ounce of strength grief had given me.
The mug spun through the air.
Then—
Crack.
The impact echoed through the room.
Yarina cried out as the ceramic struck the center of her forehead.
She stumbled backward, clutching her head.
Blood spilled almost instantly between her fingers, running down her temple and across her cheek before dripping onto the polished hardwood floor.
She collapsed onto her knees.
Romeo moved before anyone else could.
He was beside her in an instant, dropping to one knee as he caught her before she fell completely.
Carefully, he lifted her against his chest.
Bright crimson stained the front of his charcoal suit.
His attention remained fixed on her for only a heartbeat before his eyes lifted to mine.
For the first time...
I saw genuine emotion break through his carefully controlled exterior.
Not hatred. Not indifference.
Shock.
Raw, unmistakable shock.
I stood frozen, breathing hard.
My chest rose and fell violently.
Tears blurred my vision again. “That bitch killed my cat!”
The words ripped out of me before I could stop them.
My voice cracked beneath the weight of my grief. “She killed Raven!”
Every muscle in my body trembled. “I loved that cat...”
I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “...and she murdered her because she wanted to hurt me.”
Yarina let out a broken sob and clung to Romeo as though he were the only safe place left in the world.
“I... I woke up this morning and found it dead...” she cried, her voice trembling with practiced heartbreak.
She buried her face against his chest, smearing more blood across the front of his charcoal suit. “How could she accuse me of killing it?” she whispered between shaky breaths. “I buried the poor thing because I didn’t want her to see it like that. I thought I was doing something kind...”
Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks as she looked up at Romeo with wounded eyes.
“My sister has always hated me,” she whispered. “I can’t believe she’d accuse me of something so cruel.”
I stared at her in disbelief.
How could someone lie so effortlessly?
How could she cry on command after boasting about killing Raven only minutes ago?
Romeo didn’t question a single word.
Without taking his eyes off Yarina, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed a number.
“This is Romeo Flynn,” he said, his voice clipped and commanding. “I need an ambulance at the Sokolov residence immediately. Female, head trauma with significant bleeding. Move.”
He ended the call without waiting for a response.
“It hurts...” Yarina whimpered, pressing trembling fingers against her bleeding forehead.
She leaned even farther into him, as though afraid he might let her go.
Romeo tightened his hold around her shoulders, his expression unreadable.
Not once did he look at me.
Not once did he ask what had happened.
Not once did he wonder why I had reacted the way I had.
He had already decided I was guilty.
The realization hurt almost as much as losing Raven.
Barely a minute later, Romeo bent and lifted Yarina effortlessly into his arms.
She curled against his chest as though she belonged there.
As though she always had.
He carried her outside without another word.
I stood frozen in the middle of the living room before forcing my feet toward the window.
Moments later, the shrill cry of sirens shattered the morning silence.
The ambulance swept through the front gates, red and blue lights flashing across the mansion walls.
Paramedics jumped out with practiced urgency, rushing to Romeo’s side.
They checked Yarina’s pulse, wrapped a thick bandage around her forehead to slow the bleeding, asked rapid-fire questions, then carefully transferred her onto a stretcher.
Throughout it all, Romeo never left her side.
His hand remained wrapped around hers until the stretcher disappeared into the ambulance.
The doors slammed shut.
Seconds later, the vehicle sped away, its sirens fading into the distance.
I remained by the window, unable to move.
The house suddenly felt impossibly quiet.
Romeo stood alone in the driveway for several long seconds, watching the ambulance until it vanished beyond the gates.
Dark stains of Yarina’s blood streaked the front of his expensive suit.
I turned frantically, wondering what he would do if he came back, and that was when something caught my eye.
A phone lay on the floor near the spot where Romeo had crouched moments earlier, when he had held Yarina in his arms.
Curiosity drew me toward it before caution could stop me.
I crouched and picked it up.
The moment the screen lit beneath my fingers, my heart sank.
The wallpaper was a photograph of Romeo and Yarina.
It was recent. Too recent.
They were looking into each other’s eyes, standing so close that there was barely any space between them.
The intimacy in the photograph was unmistakable—the kind of closeness that made something ugly twist inside my chest.
My grip tightened around the phone.
A sharp, irrational fury clawed through me.
Then—
“What the hell are you doing with my phone?”
Romeo’s voice ripped through the silence.
I jolted.
The phone slipped from my fingers and struck the floor.
Romeo crossed the distance between us in long, furious strides.
He bent, snatched the phone from the floor, slipped it into his pocket, and straightened.
His eyes found mine.
Anger burned behind them.
Cold. Controlled. Lethal.
My stomach twisted.
I had no idea what frightened me more—the thought that I had touched something he considered private, or the possibility that he would make me pay for what I had done to the woman he loved.
My lungs seemed to forget how to work.
Would he hit me?
After everything that had happened since our wedding, I no longer knew where the limits of Romeo’s hatred ended.
His green eyes remained fixed on me.
Dark. Hard.
Dangerously calm.
I had never seen anyone look so much like judgment itself.
Slowly, I rose from my crouched position.
Every instinct screamed at me to step backward.
To put distance between us.
Instead, I forced myself to remain where I was, even as my knees threatened to buckle beneath me.
Romeo looked murderous.
Panic seized me.
I had to speak before that cold, lethal calm in his eyes turned into something far worse—before he did whatever violent thing his mind had already begun to consider.
“She called me this morning,” I blurted out. “Yarina called me and told me she killed my cat.”
His expression didn’t change.
I rushed on, my words tumbling over one another.
“She said she did it because she wanted to hurt me—for going through with this marriage to you. She wanted me to suffer because I married you.”
My throat tightened, but I forced the words out.
“She lied. She’s been lying all along.”
My voice cracked. “She didn’t find Raven dead.”
I swallowed hard, staring into his unreadable eyes. “She told me she killed her herself.”
The silence between us became unbearable.
“I know you don’t believe me,” I whispered, blinking back fresh tears. “You never do. But it’s the truth.”
I searched his face for even the smallest flicker of uncertainty...
...but all I found was the same impenetrable wall that had stood between us since the moment we were forced to say our vows.