He either doesn’t get my message or chooses to ignore it. He turns his attention to Daniel.
“I’m going to find out what you’re doing, and I’m going to fucking bury you.”
Daniel, agitated now that Zayn isn’t falling at his feet like everyone else in his life, spits between his teeth, “Just stay the fuck away from us. Gianna ismywife. You have no business coming back here and disrupting our happiness.”
“Yes, yourwifelooks so happy right now,” Zayn says coldly, nodding sarcastically at the tears streaming down my cheeks. “The picture of happiness if you ask me.”
“No one did ask you.” Daniel glowers, stepping toward Zayn, who looks just as eager to reciprocate. We’re seconds away from fists flying. I refuse to let Zayn get his hands dirty for me.
“Stop!” I cry out, but it falls on deaf ears. Zayn and Daniel stand nose to nose, the contempt pouring from Zayn’s eyes enough to burn kingdoms into ash. I hate that I’m causing him this anguish. Hate that I’ve given Daniel enough power to stand between us when we were finally so close to our happily ever after.
I’ll find a way out of this mess, and itwon’tcost Zayn. Of that I’m sure.
I pull Daniel back by his shirt and step between them, placing my palms on Zayn’s solid chest. I feel my fingers tremble before I take a hasty step back, remembering myself, and look up into Zayn’s face. He refuses to look down at me.
“Gianna, tell this asshole,” Daniel growls at my back, no doubt angry that my instinct was to rush to Zayn.
I have no choice but to say the words. My chest burns with every syllable that comes from my mouth.
“Zayn, Daniel’s telling the truth,” I say, fighting to keep my voice even. “This thing between us is over.”
For nowI want to add, but I can’t.
Zayn finally lets his gaze fall to mine, and in his eyes I see unbridled fury. But towards who? I can’t tell. I don’t know if he will ever forgive me for this, for taking Daniel’s side and refusing to tell him the truth. It all feels so wrong. I feel like I’m going to be sick.
Zayn knows there’s something wrong. He thinks I don’t trust him enough to tell him. I see it written plain as day in the flash of hurt that sparks like lightning across his face.
“Fine,” he grits out, his jaw hard. “If that’s how you want it.”
He looks back up at Daniel with pure loathing in his eyes. “If you hurt her, inanyway, your life is over.”
“Okay, guys, the private party out here is done,” Anna says as she appears suddenly at my side, probably sensing that the threats may very well soon turn into action. Her arrival breaks some of the tension, and she doesn’t waste any time tugging my arm until I’m following her back toward the doorway.
“Anna, a word.” Zayn’s demand makes her falter. She looks at me sheepishly, handing me off to Percy who’s also stepped outside, before she back-pedals to speak to Zayn.
I don’t find out what that’s about as Percy pulls me inside, Daniel at my back.
“I leave you alone for a hot minute and find you with that asshole?” Daniel grits into my ear from behind. My skin crawls with revulsion and my back reflexively arches away from his presence. “Don’t make me rethink our arrangement andinsistthat you move back into our home prematurely.”
Cold dread settles over my skin. What can I do if he tells me to move back into our house? I can’t be alone with him. I can’t live with him again, no matter what the cost.
“I hadn’t spoken to him since the day in his office. I had to tell him goodbye.”
“That better have been all it was.”
We re-join the reunion, a loud cheer erupting from a group of our old classmates when they spot Daniel. They beckon him over to their huddle with raised pints, welcoming him like an old friend even though Daniel never kept in contact with any of them past graduation. White-hot rage floods my veins. The blind worship given to him because of his celebrity status, regardless of the kind of person he really is, makes me want to fucking scream.
He mutters a furious “I’ll be watching” in my ear before leaving me behind and sauntering over to their table, his trademark grin stretched across his face. I watch with disgust as the women in the vicinity all perk up at hearing his name called and flock around him when he approaches the group, giving him an ego boost he really didn’t need.
“What arrangement is he talking about?”
I jump at Percy’s voice, having forgotten he was there. He was clearly privy to Daniel’s departing words.
“Nothing,” I say, trying to inject some poison into my words but falling short. The fight has left me. “Let me guess. You’re the one who told Zayn I was here?”
Percy crosses his arms over his chest without a hint of remorse. “Of course I did. Zayn’s been a mess this past week.”
‘Zayn’ and ‘mess’ in the same sentence sounds like an oxymoron.
