the act, I don’t care who is in the fucking room. Just stop!”
“This isn’t an act. I want you to leave, Zane. I need to do this. I need to marry Alberto, and you need to go your own way.”
I want to cover my ears with my hands, so I don’t have to listen to this or cover her mouth so she can’t get another word out. Either way, I can’t listen to this any longer.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I growl, ready to destroy something. Getting up from my seat, I start pacing around. “And I’m not letting you marry some fuckhead just because some guy tells you to.”
Twisting to fully face me, the words that come out of her mouth next cut me straight to the core. “I don’t want you, Zane. I don’t want to be with you, and the more you push me to do something I don’t want to do, the more I’ll push back. I want you to leave and not come back. I want you to forget about me and move on. I don’t want to be with you. I’m not in love with you.” Her expression is skewed, but her eyes tell me she is lying.
“You’re lying, you love me. I’ve protected you your whole life. You need me just as much as I need you.”
“I never asked you for any of that. I didn’t even know you were there most of that time!” I turn away from her, but she gets up from her seat and gets in front of me, so I have to look at her face. “Maybe I needed you before, but that’s because I thought you were all I had. I thought all my family was dead, but my father is alive, and he loves me. I don’t need you anymore.”
“Shut up,” I yell, stepping closer. Close enough to where she has to lift her head to look into my face.
“Just go, Zane. Don’t make this even harder than it already is. Just go...”
“I will never leave you. Never!” I grab her upper arm and hold her in front of me. I want to shake some sense into her. I want to make her understand, see how wrong this is.
“Let go of me,” Dove demands, her voice on edge, but that only makes me hold onto her tighter. I feel like if I don’t, she might disappear forever, slip away, and never return to me.
“Take your hand off of her,” one of the guards growls.
Turning to him, I snap, “She is mine, I touch her wherever and however I want.”
“I’m not yours!” Dove yells and shrugs out of my hold. Just when I thought this whole situation couldn’t get any worse, Dove says something that will haunt me for a very long time. “I don’t know how much clearer I can make it. I don’t want or need you. I don’t love you, and I want you to leave and never come back.” Before I can respond, she drives in the final nail. “Guards, please make him leave the house and don’t let him come back.”
“Dove! You can’t be serious?”
She backs away from me, moving out of reach. I try to take a step forward, reaching out my arms to her, but the two guards are already on me, pulling me back. I start to fight them, throwing punches at anything and everything I can reach. More men pile into the library, trying their best to get me under control.
I’ve lost count of how many men are fighting me, five or six… All I know is that I can’t let them win, I can’t let this happen. If I leave now, Dove will be all alone. I won’t be able to protect her from the outside.
I’m vaguely aware of Dove’s voice in the background, asking them not to hurt me. I almost laugh in the midst of all of this. They could throw acid on me, and it wouldn’t hurt as bad as the pain she is putting me through herself.
By the time the men have managed to shove me out of the room, my arms are worn out, and my muscles sore. I’m still healing from my last injuries, and I’m not at my strongest, but I can’t just give up either. So, I keep fighting them, even when everything hurts, even when my chest aches so much I think it might have cracked wide open. Even then, I keep fighting because right now, that’s the only