And then Daire looks up and sees me. Rage and pain hit me as she gives me one of her victorious smiles.
God, I fucking hate her.
She holds my gaze for one more beat, that ugly twisted smile of hers stays on her face as she says something to Lorenzo. I watch as his body locks and he twists his head to me. I’m not sure what he sees on my face but I watch him flinch and I’m fucking glad he does.
Does everyone hate me? Is that what this is? See who can hurt Quinn the most? What have I ever done to deserve this much pain and disrespect?
I look at my husband and then at my sister, and just like that, whatever tiny piece of hope I'd been stupid enough to hold onto dies.
I turn from them both and walk back inside, because I refuse to let them know they’ve hurt me.
Chapter 15
Lorenzo
I step out onto the terrace to get five minutes away from the noise of the wedding reception, along with Daire Delaney, constantly watching my every move. The woman hasn’t stopped looking at me since the reception started hours ago, and it’s pissing me the fuck off. I don’t know what she wants but whatever it is, I want no part in it.
For a second, I think about the moment the church doors opened, and Quinn standing there in ivory, looking so fucking beautiful it knocked the breath out of me. Petite, elegant, soft where a woman should be, those green eyes finding mine like I was the only person in the room.
She’d looked nervous, and for one reckless second, I’d wondered what this marriage might have looked like if it had started differently.
"Lorenzo." Daire says, her voice is low, with a hint of lust in it. She moves to stand beside me at the railing, way too fucking close, her shoulder angled toward mine.
"Daire." I don't look at her. I stare out onto the grounds of the hotel. I hate whatever fucking game she’s playing because I don’t know what it is or what she wants.
"You look like a man with a lot on his mind."
"I'm fine," I say through clenched teeth.
She's quiet for a moment and I’m hoping she gets the message that I don’t want to be around her, but that hope is dashed when she puts her hand on my chest, her fingers flat against my body. I look down at it and then at her face, she’s got a soft fucking look on her face, one that shouldn’t be there considering I’m a married man and she’s pregnant.
"What are you doing," I say flatly.
"I'm worried about you. I know tonight is supposed to be a celebration, but I can't stop thinking about what I told you about Quinn."
This woman really has a problem. "Then stop thinking about it."
"I can't." She shifts closer to me, her hand presses against my chest tighter. "You deserve to know what you've married. Quinn is not who she presents herself as. She's been doing this her whole life. Showing people the version of herself she needs them to see. She wanted what was mine. She always did. She waited and she was patient and she got it."
I look at her in disgust. "You're standing here on the balcony of this hotel where my wedding reception is, on my wedding night, with your hand on my chest telling me my wife is manipulative?"
"I'm telling you the truth?—"
"You've never told the truth in your life without something to gain from it. Whatever this is, whatever you're trying to do tonight, stop."
Her face shifts and the warmth that was in it, disappears. "You sound just like Daithí."
I glare at her, what am I supposed to do? Be offended, horrified, disgusted?
"I'm not trying to cause problems. I just—" She glances over my shoulder and grins. It’s a vicious one. "She destroys people, Lorenzo. She destroyed Orla and she'll destroy you."
"Get the fuck away from me, Daire," I growl at her.
"She looked at me like I was nothing the entire time we were growing up. Like I was the obstacle between her and everything she wanted." Her voice drops to a whisper. "And now she has everything I was supposed to have, and she's going to ruin it."
I open my mouth to answer but her gaze is still behind me and I turn to see Quinn. She's standing at the terrace entrance. Her gaze is focused on Daire and I. More specifically, where Daire’s hand lays on my chest. She’s too close to me, way too fucking close, and from this angle it looks exactly like what it shouldn’t.
But it’s her face that hits me, like I’ve just proven that she was right to believe she was never truly the first choice, and that look is what makes me flinch.
