Beautiful Revenge (A Good Wife #1) - Sienna Blake Page 0,54
“What does time matter when you’re in love. You married my father after only knowing him for a few weeks.”
I cringe. Emily doesn’t know I was bought. “That’s different.”
She spins towards me, her arms crossing over her chest. “I thought you were my best friend. Why can’t you be happy for me?”
“How can I be happy that you’re marrying a man who’s cruel and hateful and—”
“He’s not cruel. He’s kind and caring.”
“You don’t know him like I do.”
Emily stiffens. “You’re jealous.”
“No!” I protest a little too quickly.
“Yes, you are. Just because my father doesn’t love you, you’re jealous that someone might actually love me the way you want to be loved.”
“He doesn’t love you,” I snap. I regret it instantly.
“And you think he loves you?”
I flinch.
Realisation flashes in her eyes. “You do, don’t you? You want to take him from me because you want him.” Her lips press to a thin white line. “You jealous, spiteful bitch.”
She’s seen right through me. Underneath the concern for her, the need to save her from a loveless marriage, is the belief that Dimitri is mine. He is mine, no matter what he has done or what he has become. “He’s not yours, you stupid girl.”
The doors burst open. Edgar strides in. “What’s all this noise here?”
Emily straightens, tightening her crossed arms. “Alena doesn’t approve of my marrying Dimitri. She…” wants him for herself. I feel her eyes slide over to me, a clear threat of exposing my true feelings to the man I married. I stiffen, but I don’t beg her not to speak. “She’s saying all these awful, untrue things to try to stop me.”
I lift my chin. “You know my feelings on the matter,” I say to Edgar. “I won’t stand by and watch you destroy this family.” I play the only card I have left. “Either she goes or I go.”
“What?” Emily and my husband say together.
Dimitri is determined to destroy the ones I love. They’re letting him do it. I can’t stop any of them. I can’t be around to watch it. It will kill me. “There’s not enough room for two mistresses of Worthington Manor. Either Emily leaves this house or I will.”
Emily lets out a small gasp beside me.
I keep my stare focused on my husband. If she leaves, Dimitri as her fiancé will have to go with her. Either way, I will not have to watch him use her.
As Edgar looks between Emily and me, his daughter and his wife, his face moves from shock into a cold detachment. “Then it’s clear. You can move out, Alena. You will stay in the cottage in the Cotswolds.”
I let out the breath I was holding. Emily has gone silent beside me. I suspected my husband would choose Emily. She is his daughter, after all. Still, my heart cracks. I want someone to choose me. I want someone to choose me over everything.
I nod, biting back the sting of tears. “I’ll pack my things now. If your driver is free, I’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning.”
48
____________
Dimitri
Early the next morning, just as the dawn breaks, I stand by the window of a small front study on the third floor opposite my guest room. I watch as one of the servants walks out the front carrying Alena’s single suitcase.
I thought she would have packed more.
Then again, Alena never asked for much.
The servant places her meagre item into the trunk of the car that is to take her away. I’ve looked up the distance from here to the Cotswolds. It’s a three-hour drive away. It might as well be across the Atlantic.
“Are you really going to let her go?”
I spin on my heel. Javier is standing at the doorway. “You’re right. It would be more satisfying to watch her suffer if she stays, but what can I say to convince her to stay?”
Javier shakes his head. “For an intelligent man, you really are an idiot sometimes.”
I grit my teeth, my hands curling to fists by my side. “That is no way to speak to your boss.”
He snorts. Javier has never been intimidated by me. No matter what I do.
Neither has Alena.
He walks all the way in, letting the door swing shut behind him. “She’s still in love with you.”
“Good. It’ll make my—”
“And you still love her.”
“No.” I bat away his words. I don’t love her. I hate her. For all the suffering she put me through. I have a plan. I need to stick to the plan.