Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 28033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry,” he said hoarsely. “I’m so sorry, Lexina.”
She didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. She just gathered the rest of the photos with shaking hands and shoved them back into the envelope and forced herself to stand on legs that felt like they might give out at any moment.
He rose with her.
And when she tried to walk past him, he blocked her path.
“Please.” His voice was ragged in a way she’d never heard before. “May we talk—”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” The words came out brittle, mechanical. “We don’t have to stick with Adriano and Shayla if that’s what it takes to—”
“I love you.”
The words hit her like a physical blow.
She actually swayed, actually felt her vision blur at the edges, because oh—oh, those words. What she would have given just a day ago to hear them. What she would have sacrificed, what she would have forgiven, what she would have done.
But now she knew the truth.
Now she knew it was nothing but guilt dressed up as devotion, pity disguised as love, and she could not—would not—let herself be fooled again.
She forced herself to look up. Forced herself to meet his tawny eyes, those eyes that had looked at her with such tenderness in Manhattan, such hunger, such need. Forced herself to smile even though it felt like her face might crack from the effort.
“You don’t have to pity me.” Her voice wavered despite her best efforts. “I’m going to be okay—”
“But I’m not.” He stepped closer, and she stepped back, and they moved together like dancers in some terrible waltz. “I’ve already told Aivan I’m not going to race. We can test the system in other ways, in secret—”
“Stop feeling guilty!”
“I can’t.” The words tore out of him, raw and wrecked. “Because I am guilty. I’m guilty of hurting you even if I didn’t mean for it to happen. But worst of all—” His voice broke. “Worst of all, I’m guilty of not realizing that God gave me what I needed before I even knew what to pray for.”
Lexy’s breath caught.
He reached for her face, and she tried to push him away, tried to put distance between them, but he was too close and she was too weak and—
“No, stop it!” The words came out sharper than she intended. “Lydia said you left her because you owed it to me—”
“She lied.”
The way he cut her off so, so fiercely—
Oh, how she wished it was enough to make her believe him!
But it was not.
And so she started to shake her head, started to tell him that this conversation was pointless—
“Do you trust Aivan to tell you the truth?”
But instead, he caught her off guard with his question.
“I—”
“I know you have every valid reason to distrust me. But what about Aivan?” he asked curtly. “Do you trust him?”
She nodded reluctantly. Aivan might be one of his closest friends, but she had been working for Aivan for years as well.
“Then call him.” Leon’s voice was even fiercer now. “Call him and ask what I wanted to do when he first told me he wanted me to race for them. Back when I didn’t know you were the one who patented the technology.”
Lexy’s hands were shaking as she pulled out her phone. Her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat. And when Aivan answered on the second ring, his voice rough with concern—
“Lexy? Is everything alright?”
She had to swallow twice before she could speak.
“I...I need to ask you something.” The words tumbled past her lips. “About Leonidas. About what he wanted when you first offered him the chance to race.”
She held her breath while waiting for him to answer, bracing herself for the worst—
“He wanted to divorce you.”
But as soon as she heard his answer, she realized no preparation would be enough.
Leonidas...wanted to divorce her.
Was that why he wanted her to call Aivan?
To twist the knife deeper—
“Leonidas was worried—”
Worried about what?
About whether Lexy would refuse to let him go?
“That if his comeback proved to be a disaster, and the media painted him as a washed-up has-been who couldn’t admit he was too old and too slow to race—”
Wait.
What was Aivan saying?
“—the ridicule would extend to you,” he finished grimly.
Wait. Wait. Wait.
“Your husband wanted to protect you from that. At all costs.”
And that was when her vision started to blur.
“I think that was the time...” Aivan paused. “I think that was when he started to realize.”
“R-Realize what?”
“That he had fallen in love with you.”
The phone slipped from her fingers.
She didn’t hear it hit the cobblestones.
Didn’t hear anything except the roaring in her ears and the ragged sound of her own breathing and Leon’s voice, hoarse and desperate, saying her name like a prayer.
“Lexina?”
He loved her.
He had wanted to divorce her to protect her.
He had fallen in love with her before he even knew about the patent.