Ivan was gonewithout even saying goodbye. I’d seen the bags by the front door when I’d woken up, but they were to be sent behind him, as he was already on a plane headed back to his seclusion in the mountains. Emeline stood in the hallway, gazing at the bags, as if that was enough to bring him back. We both knew he was long gone.
A tear slid down my cheek, and I brushed it away quickly. He hadn’t even told me goodbye. I wasn’t worth that to him, I guess. He had more important things to do, and now I was going to marry someone else. If he’d just given me the chance… I scrubbed my hands down my face. It didn’t matter because I wasn’t so sure I would have told him anyway. This was my burden to carry.
My breath wavered as I stepped closer. “When did he leave?”
“Early,” she whispered, eyes shining. “Before sunrise. He didn’t wake me.”
A jagged ache tore through me. He hadn’t even bothered to wake his own mother.
“I told him to wait,” Emeline said softly. “But he insisted.”
I swallowed hard and tried to push down the panic rising into my throat. “He can’t… He shouldn’t leave. Not now.”
Her hand drifted to my shoulder, warm and gentle. “Sweetheart, he thinks he’s protecting you.”
A sharp, bitter laugh escaped me—ugly and broken. “He’s not. He’s making everything worse.”
Her gaze softened with the kind of understanding that made my eyes burn. “He loves you. And in his mind, that means stepping aside. Giving you space. Giving you… safety. He sees himself as a failure.”
My head snapped up. “Why on earth would he think such a thing?” He’d already saved me from so much, things that were harder to admit, but I knew were the right thing now.
“Donovan crushed his hands and fingers. He feels like he can’t protect you from that monster. He wanted nothing more than to take him out for you, but he can’t even pull a trigger right now.”
A wave of nausea rolled through me. “He can’t handle being alone right now.”
“No,” Emeline murmured. “But he believes he must.”
That gaping bottomless pit that I called my chest just grew even bigger. My vision blurred, and I shook my head as I bit into one of my knuckles. He wanted to take Donovan out for me, and he thought he was a failure because hecouldn’t. I wanted him back here so I could shake him. I wanted him back here so I could scream the truth into his face, but it was too late.
Something replaced the grief taking over. Grit and determination, that even more now than ever, I had to protect me and my sister. I was alone again.
I straightened, the quiet fury pulling my spine taut. “Then I guess I’m on my own.”
Emeline’s expression shifted—worry, then guilt, then something like pride. “Poppy?—”
I swiped the wayward tears from my cheeks and shook my head. “There’s nothing more to say. I can handle this. I’m strong.”
And for the first time in my entire life, I felt it.
***
With what felt like steel in my spine, I walked down the aisle alone. The music picked up from a small string quartet, and the only thing I could picture at the end of the aisle was Donovan’s demise—his endgame. I’d expected nerves. I’d imagined my knees buckling, that my palms would tremble, that I would feel the ghost of fear clawing up my throat. Walking toward the man who had tried to take everything from me—and was still holding precious Jane over my head—should have made me crumble.
Jane smiled at me from the left side of the aisle, her chin wobbling, eyes shining with a mixture of pride and terror. She thought this was the end of my life.
She had no idea it was the beginning.
On the other side stood one of Donovan’s brothers—Mark… Matias… something with anM. He was stoic, stiff, and utterly forgettable. His gaze flicked over me with appraising interest, but he didn’t matter. None of them mattered. No one in this room would matter once the night reached its crescendo.
All I needed was to get through this.
On the outside, I was composed; I probably looked elated even. On the inside, I was determined. I was ready for the rest of my life, and I knew it started once all of this was over.
I was a woman forged by grief, sharpened by betrayal, and polished by the fire of every terrible thing that had been done to Jane and me. Every step I took down that aisle was one more step toward my freedom.
My future started with his end.
The vows were a blur—empty words spoken into a void that swallowed them whole. Donovan recited his with too much pleasure, grinning at me like he’d won some prize. I said mine with unwavering confidence, my voice calm enough to fool even myself.
