The Secret Wallflower Society - Jillian Eaton Page 0,54
two years, and rage still burned in his heart for the hurt she’d caused him. Her betrayal had left him wounded for days, weeks, months. It would have been bad enough had she decided to marry before he returned for her…but to marry his own father.
It was a transgression he could never forgive.
A deception he could never forget.
Helena’s lips parted, then closed, then parted again, but no sound came out. Instead she just stared at him as if he were a ghost.
Or the devil himself.
“That’s right,” he murmured, taking a step closer. Close enough to see the wild leap of her pulse at the base of her throat. Close enough to smell her perfume; the same delicate scent she’d worn on the night they’d met. Close enough to see the flecks of gold in her furious green eyes.
“W-why?” she finally managed to choke out. “Why would you do this?”
It was a question he’d been anticipating. After all, hadn’t he asked himself the same thing? Late at night, when sleep had eluded him and he’d stared bleakly at the ceiling, hadn’t he wondered why he was really supporting Helena? Why he had paid for her rent, and her extravagant shopping sprees, and her household staff. Why he had kept it a secret all these months. Why he had sent her roses in her favorite color.
Revenge was too simple an answer.
But it was the only one he was ready to give.
“You didn’t really think you would be able to marry my father and live off his money for the rest of your life, did you?” he sneered. “Choices have consequences, lamb.”
Her eyes widened. “I didn’t – you have no idea – oh,” she sputtered, driving the heel of her shoe into the floor. She raised her fist, and for a moment, Stephen wondered if she intended to punch him. Then with a hiss of breath, she spun around and marched back into the parlor, slamming the door closed behind her.
Stephen stared at the door incredulously, unable to believe she’d just…walked away from him. No one walked away from him. Not his servants, not his peers, and certainly not red haired hellions who would do well to display a little gratitude for all they’d been given.
Grinding his teeth, he started to follow Helena into the parlor. But before he’d taken two steps, the door flew open and she came storming back out, a veritable whirlwind of temper.
“We are not having this discussion here,” she snapped. “We’ll go to the library.”
Now it was Stephen’s turn to stare as she stalked past him and disappeared down a long hallway. Of all the scenarios he’d imagined, this hadn’t been one of them: Helena barking orders at him while he stood in the middle of the foyer like a bloody idiot.
“If you’re not going to come,” she called out, her voice lashing through the air like a whip, “kindly shut the door on your way out.”
With an audible growl, he yanked off his overcoat and tossed it to the footman standing silently in the corner of the foyer with his eyes wide as saucers, before he followed Helena down the hall and into a large library with vaulted ceilings and mahogany shelves filled with too many books to count.
In the middle of the room, Helena stood facing one of the windows overlooking the rear of the estate. Her gloved hands were clasped behind her back, her chin lifted high as a queen’s. Only the slightest tightening of her jaw indicated she was aware of Stephen’s presence as he stepped through the doorway.
“You don’t seem pleased to see me,” he said, stopping behind a heavyset chair.
“Should I be?” she asked without looking at him.
His smile was dagger sharp. “No.”
At that, she finally turned her head, and he found himself taken aback by the emotion swirling in the depths of her brilliant jade eyes. It almost appeared as though she was fighting back tears and his stomach twisted unpleasantly in response. Then he recalled precisely who he was dealing with, and his body stiffened.
Helena wasn’t a helpless damsel in distress, no matter how well she played the part. She was cunning. She was conniving. But most of all, she was ruthless. Because a woman who would willingly marry a man four times her age just for the sake of his fortune was a woman who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted.