My stomach bottoms out. “Why?”
He doesn’t reply.
It takes me a moment to put two and two together. “You didn’t want me to marry Joni. You knew if I were ruined, he’d reject me and annul the contract.”
He watches me stoically. “Correct.”
And then it all clicks into place. “You wanted to make sure my father didn’t get the alliance the marriage would’ve secured.”
“I didn’t want Stein to marry you. Point.”
I gape at him as hurt churns in my chest, making a mess of my already bruised heart. “An alliance would’ve made my father too powerful.”
Jazz turns around with a frown, probably realizing we’re no longer following behind her.
“Yes,” he says again—so emotionlessly—driving that rusty nail deeper into the coffin in which our nasty history is sealed.
“Tiana?” Jazz calls, sounding uncertain.
Reino stops too, putting a hand on Noah’s shoulder.
Unwanted tears gather at the corners of my eyes. “Even in that, I was a pawn.”
The line of his jaw hardens. “The alliance would’ve strengthened your father’s power, but it wouldn’t have mattered. It was merely a detail. I would’ve wiped him off the face of the Earth all the same. The fact remains you were mine already. What difference does it make?”
All the difference. I fought for him—for us—whereas I was nothing but a possession to him. Just as he considers the territory he took from my father as his rightful property, he considers me an object that belongs to him because he’d stolen me from another man.
Unable to look at him for a second longer lest he sees the pain of that cruel betrayal on my face, I make to continue on my way. He doesn’t deserve my tears. I’m too proud to show him how much his actions, both past and present, affect me.
He cups my nape before I can escape and pulls me closer, forcing me to face him. “Nothing has changed, and it never will.”
“Exactly,” I whisper, my voice on the verge of breaking. “I’m glad we got that out of the way.”
He works his jaw from side to side, but he doesn’t stop me again when I pull free and walk away.
Jazz shoots me a questioning look, but she doesn’t say anything in front of Dante.
We go by the park so that Dante can buy Noah an ice cream cone. After devouring the treat, Noah goes to play on the jungle gym. Dante sits next to me on the bench with his arm stretched out along the back, neither of us saying a word as we watch our son. Dante’s men keep close while Jazz sits on a bench by herself.
Reino buys a frozen drink from a nearby vendor and carries a paper cup to Jazz. “You look hot.”
She bats her eyelashes. “Thanks, I know.”
Reino smirks. “That’s not the kind of hot I meant, but you look that too.”
She pulls a face. “I know what you meant, Reino. I’m not daft.”
“That sounds good on you.”
Her tone is bored. “What?”
“My name.”
“Oh, please.” She shakes her head. “You need to practice your pickup lines. They’re cheesy.”
“Who said I was hitting on you?”
“Just—” She huffs. “Go away.”
