30. Ivy
Ivy
After a spectacular girls trip with Scar where we danced, partied, shopped, and ate till we dropped, I’m back to this prison of a mansion.
When Scar received the call and her facial expression changed, I knew the party was over.
When she told me about her father’s death, she was so detached and impersonal that I was worried the whole way back.
She hasn’t really said a word, and that’s bothering me, so when we land and she says she’s going to her own house, I dissuade her and take her with me to Emmett’s place—my prison.
I need to keep an eye on Scar, but of course a brooding, agitated, bristling man is waiting for me when I leave Scar’s room.
“Ivy.”
When he says my name, he’s really pissed, but I don’t care. To top it off, he looks rough.
“We need to talk,” he says in a low, soft tone that deceives his anger.
“Good. I want to talk to you too.”
“Where’s your ring?” he suddenly demands, staring at my left hand.
I fish out the ring from my jean pocket and give it to him. “Here, and I also want you to sign these.”
Emmett’s nostrils flare, his eyes flashing. He grabs my hand, completely ignoring the papers and unclenches my fingers before he slides my wedding rings back onto my left hand.
“Emmett.”
“If you take them off again, I’ll have them fused to your finger, Angel, don’t fucking push me!”
A shudder goes through me when I see the deadly promised flashing in his eyes.
“You’re exhausting me,” I mutter, shoving the papers against his chest. “Sign them!”
“What are those?”
From his tone, I know he knows exactly what they are.
“Emmett, let’s not play this game. Just sign the damn papers and let’s get this over with,” I say tiredly and go past him. “I’m tired and so are you. You already have a lot going on and I want to go home.”
“You are home.”
“This isn’t my home, and you know it!”
“Angel…”
I can’t take it anymore.
“Please, don’t call me that anymore,” I tell him with a level voice. This won’t be a screaming contest like before. I had time to think and see the world. I think I know exactly what I want now and I’m going all out for it.
“No,” he says stubbornly, following me back to the master bedroom where I have my suitcases open and ready to pack. “And you’re not going anywhere.”
I can feel a migraine coming on. “I don’t need your permission.”
“There’s a war going on.”
“And it has nothing to do with me.”
He snaps his mouth shut, his jaw clenching reflexively as he watches me with a hooded gaze.
“You’re my wife, how can this have nothing to do with you?” he snaps.
I look at him squarely.
“Let’s stop pretending now, shall we?” I say tiredly. “You got what you wanted from me. I was always going to get the short end of the stick. That’s on me, so you’re off the hook.”
“What’s going on here?” he asks, wrapping his thick, strong arm that could crash stone around my waist, and with his other hand he nudges my chin up with his thumb and forefinger, forcing me to look at him. “What am I missing?”
“Nothing. I just finally caught up,” I whisper, pushing out of his hold.
He lets me go but I can sense his heavy frustration.
“Your brother will be home soon,” he announces with enthusiasm.
“Okay.”
“That’s all?”
“What are you expecting? A parade for a man who would sell me in a heartbeat, so long as his targeted outcome is met?”
“Sell you?” he whispers. “No one can afford you but me. Hell, not even I can afford you, and I’m the wealthiest person alive.”
I roll my eyes, but my heart is still pounding painfully at the strangeness of this moment.
“I’d never give you to anyone, Angel… I was giving him to you. As bait to reel in the shitheads that hurt you, your grandfather and my mother.”
“That’s not how it was for me!”
“Angel…”
“No, let’s talk. Actually, let’s lay everything out in the open so we’re both clear,” I say dropping the blouse I was folding.
“Not six months ago, it would’ve taken extreme measures for you to even be in the same room as me, let alone talk to me.
And just when I want to actually move on, find an escape for myself, you come in like a raged bull, wrecking everything apart, tossing me some measly morsels of perfectly calculated affection, then tearing me into a bloody mess when you tell me you don’t feel anything for me! ”
As soon as those words drop, it’s like the cracks in the depth of my soul just broke apart.
Through my blurring vision, I manage to catch the crestfallen expression on Emmett’s face that I don’t dare trust.
For all I know, he’s acting right now.
“No, Angel, that’s not…”
He attempts to reach for me, but I step away, hugging myself as the pain filtering through becomes too much to handle.
“Did you have to be so cruel?” I croak past my burning throat. “Yes, it’s my fault that I never listened to you when you pushed me away! I’m a dumb bimbo who can’t understand the signs and signals but, my God, Emmett, why did you have to go to such extreme lengths to make me suffer?”
“I would never?—"
“But you did! You did everything to keep me alive when you could’ve gotten rid of me without getting your hands dirty!
” I cry, my heart ablaze, turning into charcoal.
“Why did you protect me? Why were you always around when I was lonely? Why did you keep coming closer? Why did you let me hear your fucking cursed heartbeat back then? Was it your plan all along? To make me fall for you so irrevocably that you owned me? Did you find pleasure in how pathetic I’ve been for you because the one you wanted didn’t want you back? ”
“What? No!” Emmett says immediately, swallowing the space between us. “That’s not how it was at all. I never wanted Astraea. I…”
He trails off, his lips pressing together tightly while his eyes burn through me as if he expects me to be that na?ve girl that used to believe the looks he gave me had hidden messages.
Now, I know better.
I scoff, shaking my head, feeling an exhaustion that crashes my bones.
“You know what, I don’t care anymore,” I whisper, looking down at my shoes. “I think we both got what we wanted, so let’s stop here. Sign the damn divorce papers.”
“No.”
I look up at the sound of his raspy voice but somehow, that same tone echoes around in the empty chambers of my heart, producing nothing.
Not an inch of feeling or emotion. Everything is dead.
“You wanted to use me, and it worked. I wanted a baby, but you never intended to honor your part of the contract, but you did give me spectacular orgasms. Thanks for that!”
His entire body tenses right in front of my eyes as an aura of danger starts wafting around him like a visible flow of energy.
“Oh, so you finally got choked, sucked, and fucked, and now you’re done?” he snaps with a clipped tone. “You’re going to walk away now?”
A fake smile graces my face as I nod. “Absolutely. I got the experience I wanted. Now, I won’t be fumbling when I’m with the love of my life later. You did a great job.”
This seems like the wrong thing to say because Emmett’s nostrils flare and his fists clench at his sides.
“Don’t fucking cheapen our lovemaking like I’m your fucking gigolo!” he seethes.
“Lovemaking is for lovers! You and I have never been that. We both got gratification, so let this toxic mess end now. As for that third condition of that contract, I’m sure we can both agree to use it to nullify this crap between us.”
“Just like that?” he asks darkly.
“It was bad blood right from the beginning, and I refuse to bleed out and die with you.”
Because the truth is, if I stay, my heart will die for real.
I can’t match the relentless and indifferent nature Emmett Easton possesses. And he won’t stop until I’m damned to hell. I need to get out.
“I want nothing to do with Beverly and her daughter. Do with them as you please.”
With that, I turn around to leave, but I feel a hand grabbing my wrist, something I’ve always hated in books and movies and especially now when all I want is to get away and lick my wounds in private.
“Ivy…”
My heart drops to my chest.
“Let go,” I murmur past my clogged throat.
“I… I can’t,” he groans, pulling me into him. He wraps his cannon arms around me, my back nestled in the warmth of his chest. “You know I can’t.”
Agony like being pierced with a thousand blades through the heart filters through me.
The strings only he has access to are being pulled tight right now… but that just means they’re about to snap to set me free.
Maybe that’s the release I need… to break away from him. I suck in a deep breath, but it only makes waves of pain surge up in my chest.
“We’ve never lied to each other,” I mutter as tears run down my cheeks. “But we’ve also never been fully honest either. Let’s start now. If you want me to put on a show for your family so you can beat your chest and show them who’s boss, then just say that, but let go of me, you fucking asshole!”
“I can’t…” he whispers brokenly in my hair, his body starting to tremble. “I’m physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually unable to let you go, let alone watch you with someone else… I can’t, Ivy. It’s impossible for me.”
I stand there in his arms, silently breaking apart.
This is where I’ve always wanted to be, in the arms of the man I fell in love with when we were just children.
He’s saying all the words I’ve always wanted to hear him say.
But…
“You had a chance to get a heart transplant three years ago, why didn’t you take it?”
He grows as still as stone behind me and doesn’t say a word. I chuckle.
“You always had pretty words, Emmett. And being addicted to stories, I loved listening to yours, but wow, all your actions were always transparent, but I chose to blindfold myself and pretend to be unafraid of the dark.”
Knowing he won’t let me go easily, I start moving to turn around and he lets me, but he doesn’t completely break his hold around me.
I turn around and face him fully, his arms still around my waist, my body flush against his.
“The answer is simple,” I whisper. “I’ve never been enough for you to want to live.”