33. Sienna #4
“I will. Because you’re marrying my cousin.
” My throat burned. “My cousin, Jamison. Every holiday. Every family event. Every retreat. I would have to see you with her. I would have to watch her wear your ring and carry your children while everyone pretends you didn’t ruin me first. I want out of Harlan before that happens. I want away from both of you.”
“Sienna.”
“No. Don’t soften your voice now.”
“I’m begging you to let me in.”
Jamison Crow, outside the Bellemere gates, said begging, as if he hated himself for needing the word and would use it anyway.
“Let me in,” he said. “Let me take that dead ring off your hand and put mine there. Be furious with me. Hit me. Scream at me. Do anything you need to do, but open the gates.”
My lip trembled.
I pressed it hard between my teeth until the pain helped.
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No. Because if I see your face, I’ll want to believe you. And I can’t survive believing you again.”
“If you won’t let me in, I’ll come through everyone else. Your father. Adrian. Every councilman who touched those documents. Every lawyer. Every guard. Every man standing between me and you. Daddy will reach you, baby.”
“Don’t.”
“Then open the gates.”
“You’re not my dom, Jamison.” The words shook, but I made them clear. “You are nothing but my cousin’s fiancé, and I will never sign to marry you again.”
The silence after that was the worst one yet.
I heard him breathe.
Once.
Twice.
“You’ve forgotten who the fuck I am.”
“No. I remembered.”
“You think a line in a file makes you safe from me?”
“I think it keeps you outside.”
“For tonight.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“And tomorrow?” he continued. “The day after? You think I won’t pull Harlan apart until every document says what it should have said from the beginning?”
“You can pull apart whatever you want. It won’t make me sign.”
“You will sign.”
“No, I won’t.”
“I’ll make sure every other option disappears.”
My stomach dropped.
“That sounds very romantic.”
“I’m done being romantic if it means you walk away and put another man’s name near yours.”
“You don’t get to be jealous of a husband I haven’t chosen while Celeste is in your paperwork.”
“Say her name one more time.” His voice sharpened.
“Celeste.”
“Sienna.”
“Celeste Bellemere. Your fiancée. My cousin. The woman you took to Veyr House while I was unpacking at the retreat.”
He went silent.
I used that silence because if I didn’t, I would break again.
“In a few years,” I said quietly, “we’ll see each other at another Bellemere retreat. Maybe I’ll have a little boy who looks like his father. Maybe you’ll have daughters with Celeste, blonde and perfect, and our heirs will play together by the lake.”
“Sienna, stop.”
“No. I want you to hear it. I’ll stand beside my husband, and you’ll stand beside your wife, and everyone will be polite.
Everyone will ignore this ever happened because that’s what dynasties do.
I’ll spend the whole retreat in my husband’s arms, and I won’t look at you unless etiquette makes me.
At first I’ll still be heartbroken, but it will fade. Time will release me.”
“You think I would attend a retreat while you belong to another man?”
“I won’t belong to you.”
“You will never belong to another man.”
“I will.”
“No.”
“I will marry someone else, Jamison.”
“You won’t.”
“I’ll give him heirs.”
“Stop.”
“And one day, I’ll love him.”
The sound he made was quiet and awful. Pain. I closed my eyes, and a tear slid down my cheek
“I will,” I whispered, because if I didn’t keep going, I would call him daddy by mistake. “It will take time because you broke my heart. But I will move on. We’ll all move on. Everyone always does.”
“No.”
It came out raw.
“No, Sienna. You won’t. I won’t. There is no polite future where we bring children to the same lake and pretend I don’t remember what you sound like when you come.
There is no husband. There are no heirs with another man.
There is no moving on. You can hate me from behind those gates, but do not mistake distance for escape. ”
I shook my head, even though he couldn’t see it. “Goodbye, Jamison.”
“If you end this call, I will make tonight worse for everyone.”
“You already did.”
“I love you.”
“You don’t love me,” I whispered. “You love control.”
“I love you.”
“No. You don’t get to find that word after I find out from Veil that I’ve been replaced.”
“Listen to me—”
“No.”
“Sienna.”
“I’m blocking this number now.”
“Do that and I’ll call from another.”
“I’ll turn the phone off.”
“I’ll come through the house line.”
“We’ll disconnect it.”
“I’ll use your family.”
“They’re why I found out last.”
“I love you, and that is very unfortunate for every living soul in this city because I won’t stop.”
My hand shook around the phone. I believed he could make a city suffer because I had locked a gate. But, I also believed the document on my phone.
“Then I hope Harlan forgives you,” I said.
“Sienna.”
“Goodbye.”
I ended the call.
For one second, silence, only for the phone to lit again.
Jamison.
I blocked the number before I could answer.
Another call appeared within twenty seconds.
Unknown.
I declined it.
Another.
I turned the phone off with shaking hands and set it facedown on the vanity.