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I’ll never be able to trust him again. I’ll never trust myself around him, not after I so willingly believed him. I’d even convinced myself that his possessiveness was a good thing, that it was different from Harrison’s somehow.

Now, I feel Liam’s protective jealousy like an entire pack of snarling wolves, so many surrounding me that it doesn’t matter where their teeth are pointed.

As Liam sinks into his chair, his da jabs a thick finger toward him.

“You might not be happy about it right now. But this was a test for you both.” He swings his accusatory finger to include me. “And you failed.”

My stomach plummets. At my side, Orla keeps smoothing her hand between my shoulder blades, but it feels less comforting now. If this was a test from Declan, then Orla helped to orchestrate it.

They’re a single unit. In a way Liam and I will never be.

Chapter 47

Liam

Sitting at the far end of the table, Brioni feels a million miles away from me.

Absently, she sets down the glass of water I gave her. Her beautiful doe eyes stare into nothing. It’s the look of someone who’s taken a shotgun blast to the chest. So hurt she’s ready to die.

And I’m the one who hurt her.

Next to her, Mam’s rubbing her back and murmuring low. I can’t hear the words. There’s a ringing in my ears, like Da’s detonated a flashbang in the room. In its aftermath, all I know is how badly I’ve fucked up.

The patch of skin beneath my eye burns with my guilt. I broke my promise to my beloved Brioni, and I know in my heart she’ll never forgive me. She shouldn’t.

Beside me, Da clears his throat.

“Your future wife cannot fail any tests like these. It may mean you’ll have to be the villain, but such is this life. Your bride will have to be strong enough to handle it. If it’s not Brioni, then there’s still a list of⁠—”

“No.” I’m barely able to contain my rage. Heat rises to the tips of my ears. I will not be taking a wife who isn’t Brioni.

“Hear him out,” she says. From the far end of the table, my fiancée’s voice is faint.

But her words knock me on my ass all the same.

“This all started as pretend anyway.” She looks to Mam, then Da. Never to me. “You’re right that Liam needs a bride. And it’s best if that bride comes with an alliance.”

“No,” I whisper, but no one hears me. The heat of anger seeps from my body.

“I will support any alliance this family needs,” Brioni says. “Liam is my friend, and it is my duty to support him in his marriage to whoever he chooses.”

Brioni, I try to say. But her name doesn’t pass my lips. I will always choose you.

Finally, she turns to me. And I wish she hadn’t.

I can’t take the blankness of her stare. Her eyes are flat. Hopeless in a way I haven’t seen since her mam left. When all the stability in her life had come crumbling down.

I’ve done that to her again. I’ve snatched away her one source of feeling secure. I’ve been selfish.

And that is one thing a leader cannot be.

Without the heat of my fury, I am empty. And without Brioni at my side, I am broken.

I try to swallow, but my throat’s too dry. If she won’t fight for us, then I won’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want. And if the only way to keep her in my life is to be the friend she needs, that’s what I’ll do.

No matter how much it fucking hurts.

Chapter 48