Page 105 of Break My Heart

They all turn when I step in.

Christin immediately moves toward me. “Hey, did we wake you?”

“No. I just woke up.”

Her arm wraps around my waist. “Did resting help any?”

I shrug before wrapping my arm around her. “Did I miss anything important?”

Lewis’s mouth presses into a thin line before answering, “That depends on your definition of important.”

“That bad?”

Christin hesitates, which tells me something catastrophic occurred. I demand, “What happened?”

Dario straightens before gesturing toward the telly. “You should probably watch this. All the news channels have it on repeat.”

I follow his arm and see my father’s face filling the screen. Christin mutters, “That man wouldn’t know how to fake grief if he tried.”

I’m about to agree with her when I catch sight of the news banner scrolling.

BREAKING: Viscount Raleigh and Family Confirmed Dead

My stomach churns. Then I snap back into focus on what the news outlet is saying.

“…tragic accident,” the reporter says in a polished yet detached tone. “Sources indicate the late Viscount and his family were involved in a fatal incident after they were hit directly by a high-performance vehicle…”

I scoff, “Of course that’s how he framed it.”

No one disagrees with me.

The clip cuts to my father delivering a statement. I hush the room. Dario looks at me questioningly. I bite out, “I need to hear what he says.”

“Are you sure?”

I bob my head once. Seconds later, I wish I hadn’t because the unmitigated gall of my father cuts a new wound into me.

“My family is dealing with this private matter,” he says evenly. “My second son, Leo Hawthorne, has returned to the country. He will assume his responsibilities as Viscount Raleigh effective immediately.”

I try to comprehend his words. Returned. Will assume.

Second son.

He announced it to the world like I agreed. Like I wasn’t standing in a hotel lobby before being ambushed. As if he hadn’t told me a decade ago I was no longer welcome in his home. Like my brother and his family dying is an inconvenience instead of a tragedy.

My jaw clenches. I say one word. “No.”

Christin’s hand tightens on my arm. “Leo⁠—”

“No,” I repeat, louder this time. My gaze is still locked on the screen as if I were to look away, it somehow becomes real in a different way. “I don’t want the bloody title. I don’t want any part of that life.”

My chest rises and falls unevenly, something hot and suffocating building under my ribs.

“He doesn’t get to announce that. He doesn’t get to pull me back into his world,” I add, my voice rougher than I intend.

Christin steps closer, her hand sliding into mine, grounding me before I can spiral further. Her words are firm and direct. “Then we won’t let him.”

But he’ll try to find a way. I know, as well as everyone else in this room, that I’m not just refusing the title. I’m rejecting him.