For a brief second, pain flickered through her eyes.
This was the man she had once wanted to spend her entire life with. The man she had dreamed of building a future with.
But that life was no longer possible.
Just then, heavy footsteps echoed behind her.
Mia stiffened.
A tall figure marched toward them, his presence cold and lethal.
“Alexander?”
She gasped, shock flashing across her face.
Alexander’s eyes were dark with fury as he reached her and gripped her arms firmly.
“Are you alright?” he demanded, anger and tension radiating off him.
She nodded quickly, barely managing a response as his gaze swept over her body, checking her face, her arms, every inch of her.
On the ground, James could barely hear anything. The voices around him sounded distant, muffled. Darkness clouded his vision as he lifted his eyes weakly.
He saw Alexander standing protectively in front of Mia.
Then Alexander’s furious gaze shifted to him.
The rage in his eyes intensified as he took a step forward.
But Mia grabbed Alexander’s arm tightly.
“Alexander, I’m fine,” she said urgently. “Stop. Please. You don’t need to make this worse.”
She tightened her grip around him. “Let’s go home,” she whispered.
Alexander clearly didn’t want to leave—but he didn’t pull away from her either.
James lay there, weak and shaking, his eyes locked on them.
James watched them through blurred vision—the way she clung to Alexander, the way she held him without hesitation.
So it was all true.
She had really married Alexander—willingly.
The realization crushed him harder than anything before. Mia was farther out of his reach than she had ever been.
The darkness finally swallowed him whole.
James collapsed unconscious.
Chapter 21 I have Changed
“Mr. Sinclair?”
Mrs. Maisel knocked repeatedly on the door of what used to be Mia’s room in the Sinclair house.
There was no response.
