Page 38 of King of Rage

It had been there in plain sight, impossible to miss against the crisp white fabric.

The sight had stopped her heart.

The pain that followed had been so intense that she had felt as though something inside her had been ripped apart.

She had already fallen so deeply in love with Lucius that she had been ready to propose to him. She had been ready to place her entire future in his hands. She had believed that the man standing in front of her was the man who loved her, the man who belonged to her, the man she could trust with every part of herself.

Lucius had always been that kind of man.

Powerful. Controlled. Wealthy enough to have anything he desired. A billionaire accustomed to getting his way and never having to explain himself to anyone.

And Stella had believed she was the one person he would never betray.

But that lipstick stain had made one thing painfully clear.

The man she had been sleeping with was not the man who was in love with her.

He was a man who had been sleeping with another woman.

That realization had destroyed every feeling she had ever had for him and broken her completely.

That was the reason she had broken up with Lucius.

She had walked away because she knew that if she stayed, she would destroy herself for him.

If it had not been for Shane asking for her help to move to London, where she could stay with him while they put up a front of being husband and wife, she would have remained in Manhattan.

And staying there would have devastated her even more.

Leaving Manhattan had not simply been about starting over somewhere else. She had been too broken to continue living in the same city as Lucius. Every street, every building, every familiar place seemed to carry a memory of Lucius.

He was everywhere.

Like a shadow she could not escape.

She could not walk through the city without remembering him. She could not return to the places they had shared without feeling the weight of everything she had lost. The life she had once imagined with him followed her through every corner of Manhattan, reminding her of the man she had loved and the future she had believed they would have.

That was another reason she had been so devastated.

Her friends knew why she had truly been unable to remain in Manhattan, why she had needed to put an ocean between herself and Lucius before the memories consumed her completely.

She had buried pain, pretending that she had moved on, pretending that Lucius no longer had the power to hurt her.

But even after everything, even after a year apart, even after forcing herself to build a completely different life, there was one truth she could never escape.

She had never forgotten Lucius.

Stella looked at Triston for a long moment before finally drawing in a deep breath. She held it for a second, trying to force down the anger building inside her, then slowly exhaled and met his eyes again.

“I know what I’m doing, okay?” she said, her voice tight with frustration. “Stop interfering in my life. Don’t treat me like I’m a child. I know what you did, and I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m not a fool, Triston. Do you really think I will be fooled twice?”

Her arms remained folded across her chest, but her fingers tightened against her sleeves.

“I know that I fell in love with him, but I’m not in love with him right now. And the only thing I want from him is not what you’re thinking.”

Triston stared at her, his expression still impatient and unconvinced.

For several seconds, neither of them said anything.