Page 81 of The Devil of Hollywood

He nodded as I opened the envelope, pouring the contents on the table before me. A few papers were clipped together, and I noticed the top one was a marriage license. I reached over, spreading out the three fake pictures of our supposed wedding, stopping to hover over rings. One held a single large diamond while the matching gold band was covered in small ones. It had me looking from the brand of the upside-down crown to the real rings that were before me.

“What is this?”

“Those would be yours. I bought them before you went to London.”

My lips parted, and my hand was shaking as I picked them up from the table. I swallowed hard, not able to fight the way my eyes burned.

“I can get you different ones if you’d prefer. I just thought you should have them. I did buy them for you.”

“Drayton… I didn’t mean⁠—”

“Stop. I said the past was dead.”

“Saying and believing are two different things. You don’t want the past to be dead. You wanted to kill it yourself. That’s why you bought all that stuff The Unavowed mentioned: crops, barbed wire. He didn’t give you the chance to use them.”

“No. He didn’t.”

“So, what do you want to do?”

“There is nothing to do. It’s done. It’s over.”

I placed down the rings, standing as I took in his stiff body. He was so closed off. This man wasn’t the Drayton I remembered. He wasn’t even the one who kissed and took such good care of me on our wedding night.

“Over. Yeah… I guess it is.”

Turning, Drayton’s hand quickly settled on my bicep as I went to leave.

“Where are you going?”

I stopped, turning to face him. “Out. Around. Does it matter?”

“You can’t just go walking around this place. It’s not safe.”

“It’s not safe here either.”

“What do you mean by that? You think I’m going to hurt you?”

My arms crossed over my chest.

“I think I’ve been fed bullshit long enough. What’s coming between me and you isn’t some small argument. You’re out for blood, whether you want to admit it or not, and you can bet your ass I’m not going to sit idle and wait for you to blow up so you can get it. If you want your revenge, I’m right here. Stop beating around the bush. Stop pitying me for what was done and step the fuck up. You want to hurt me? You want me to pay for what happened, man up and do it.”

Drayton’s eyes were so narrowed as he glared.

“I’m not hurting you. You’ve been hurt enough.”

“But not by you. You think I can’t take it? You think I’m going to crumble and break under what you want to do? Let’s find out.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying. You’re angry⁠—”

“Damn right I’m angry! I’m fucking pissed! I’m sick of this shit. Everyone has their agendas, and then there’s me, stuck in the goddamn middle. My mother wants to hurt your family—ruin them—Me. You want your revenge because of what she did by using me—Me. The Unavowed wanted Penny and my future child—Me! Me! Me! Fuck all of you! What about me, Drayton? What. About. Me!”

“Calm down.”

“Don’t you fucking tell me to calm down. I’ll calm down when I’m damn good and ready. I’m going out. Until you’re ready for that revenge, it’s probably not a good idea to get near me. Maybe I’ll go after mine first.”

I turned but he spun me back to face him.

“Yours? Your revenge? For what?”