Hayes stills.
He knows.
“Tell me,” I insist.
“It’s not mine to tell.”
“But you disagree with him hiding it from me?”
“I do.”
“Then tell me. I need to know the truth. I need to know the stakes.”
He runs his hand through his long hair and adjusts his glasses. He wants to tell me. He thinks I should know.What’s stopping him?
“I want to protect him,” I say.
Hayes looks at me, trying to see my own secrets.
A beat passes. “Lennox made a deal with your father that in exchange for marrying you and becoming the successor, he had to prove himself worthy of the job.”
I nod, but that’s not the part I don’t know.
“Lennox either has to find and kill your greatest enemy—the man you’ve been hiding from all this time.”
“That’s not possible. No one has ever been able to find and stop him.”
Hayes nods solemnly.
“And the other?”
“He has to fall in love with you.”
I gasp. I never would have expected it from Vincent. I never thought he cared if my husband loved me.
“And if he doesn’t?”
“He has one year. An heir would certainly help his cause and might make Vincent reconsider the terms, but otherwise, Lennox will fail.”
I frown. “You don’t think he could love me?”
Hayes’s head dips. “It’s not you, but Lennox can’t love anyone—not romantically, at least. His past traumatized him in a way that prevents him from ever loving again.”
“What happened?”
“No, that part of his story I can’t tell you. That’s for him to decide if he wants to share or not.”
“Then, why share any of it if you think there is no hope? So we’ll get divorced after the year is up, and I’ll have to marry someone else, and Lennox will go back to his old life—”
“No, the terms of the deal don’t just mean he’d give up becoming Vincent Corsi’s successor. Vincent would have him killed.”
I suck in a breath.
We’ve faced danger and death already. But there is a difference between fighting when attacked and risking your life all to become my husband and Vincent’s heir to a group of men who hate you.
Hayes rests his lips together, letting me take it all in. I feel like I’m going to be sick.
I stand up and put my hands over my head, needing more air.