“I asked her to,” he says wearily, as though admitting it is draining the life out of him. “Ibeggedher to. I loved her. All of my life, I loved her. I was a coward when I left her all those years ago. I didn’t want to walk away a second time.”
Something about the utter devastation on his face and the way his shoulders slump have me placing my hand over Denver’s rigid bicep.
“Put the gun away,” I whisper.
The corners of his eyes pinch and his gaze remains pinpointed on Neil.
“I don’t want to do that, Princess,” he grits.
“But I’m asking you to.Please.”
Denver’s brow furrows and his nostrils flare as he glares at Neil.
“I can tear your heart out of your chest so fast that when I crush it in my fist, it’ll still be beating.”
Neil’s face pales at Denver’s deathly calm voice. He nods once, his throat bobbing as Denver places the safety back on his gun and holsters it.
“I just want to talk. Just for a minute,” he says.
“So talk,” Denver growls.
I step out from behind him, but he catches me with a hand to my hip and curls it around me protectively, drawing me into his side. I glance up at the murderous set of his jaw.
“I’m an asshole who’d fucking die for you. And no… not because it’s my job.”
My eyes rake over his profile for a second and warmth blankets over me.
“It’s okay,” I breathe.
“When some guy accosts you in an alley, Sinclair, it is not okay.”
“I just want to talk,” Neil says again.
There’s no malice in his voice, no strength. He sounds like a broken man. One who’s lost everything.
“She told me she would never leave you,” he says.
“She still loved my father?” My heart lifts.
These past two and a half years he’s had to live knowing Mom had an affair with her first love. The man who left her pregnant and heartbroken. My father was the one who picked up the pieces and dealt with the wreckage he left behind. My father was the one who held her when she cried after her miscarriage. My father was the one who built a family with her. An empire.
My father was the one she truly loved.
He’s beyond happy with Halliday now. But maybe knowing Mom never meant to hurt him will be some comfort to him. Because he never got to ask her himself. He was robbed of those conversations when she died.
“No. Elaina said she would never leaveyou,” Neil replies.
I suck in a sharp breath. “Me?”
“She said you were her youngest. Her only daughter. She said even though you were an adult that you still needed her, that a daughter always needs her mom. She would never leave you, even though she loved me.”
My eyes burn. Neil’s outline gets blurry, and Denver’s grip on my hip tightens, supporting me.
“Is that what you came to tell me?” I cry. “The reason you’re back in New York? Because you wanted to tell me it was my fault she wouldn’t leave to be with you? You came back into her life,and you screwed with my whole family! We were fine before you came back. We were all together.”
My chest heaves as sobs threaten to break free.
Denver pulls me into his side, the warmth of his solid chest meeting my cheek as I press it against him.
