Page 120 of A Vicious Love

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Want her.”

My fingers tightened around the empty glass.

Emmie looked at me like she genuinely did not understand.

“Why don’t you want her?”

I said nothing. Because I did want her. But how the fuck did I drag her back to my side now the merger review was active. Another part of me considered if this was just possession. Then, I’ d spend the night picturing her curled into my side, and I had my answer.

“She has done everything right for three years.” Emmie wiped at her cheek angrily. “Everything. She attends your events. She remembers your whiskey. She smiles at everyone when you scare them. She waits for you. She asks about your work even when you barely answer her. She tries so hard to stand beside you properly.”

Each sentence landed worse than the last.

“She is sweet,” Emmie continued. “She is loyal. She’s beautiful. She is never cruel to anyone. Why isn’t she enough for you?”

Harrison looked at his drink. Marcel watched me over Emmie’s shoulder. I did not care about Sienna. That was the truth I had been telling myself for three years. I had repeated it enough that it should have hardened into something reliable.

“She’s a contract,” I said, “Nothing more.”

“That’s horrible.” Emmie’s fingers curled against Marcel’s shirt.

“The Bellemeres attached a body to a debt. Damius opened the review. They can move the body elsewhere. Everyone needs to stop acting like a dynasty negotiation is a funeral.”

“Sienna is not a body.”

“She is the debt mechanism.”

“She is a person,” Emmie snapped. Her sadness had sharpened into anger now.

Better.

Anger I understood. It did not make the room feel like it had moved too close around my throat.

“You all got too involved. That is the problem.” I tapped my ring on the glass once.

Emmie stared at me. Then laughed once.

“Too involved?”

“Yes.”

“She’ll go to St. Cross and make friends with Weston’s brothers’ wives. She’ll sit beside them at events. She’ll shop with them. They’ll know about ballet and her gallery. They’ll get all the little parts of her life because she’ll be there.”

Her hand moved to the collar. Marcel’s fingers covered hers immediately.

“And just like that,” Emmie whispered, “my only friend is gone.”

One shared look between us, and we made a joint decision. Change the subject.

“What about your birthday?” Harrison asked, as he sat forward.

Emmie looked toward him. Her expression made the question sound cruel even though Harrison had meant it gently.

“We were going to do the terrace thing. Dinner. Music. Your terrible cake order.” Harrison added.

“I don’t want to do anything.”