I stiffen as a female calls his name from inside his room as if God himself is laughing in my face for believing every word Sin ever said to me.
“One minute,” he answers, his voice louder to carry through the closed door we’re leaning up against, making me jump.
“We’re going to be late, babe. The caterer was able to work us in. I don’t want them to cancel on us,” she goes on.
Caterer? For what? Their wedding? He’s really marrying her? The girl he said he wasn’t cheating on me with? Was it cheating? Were we ever really together? My mother was right, I know the rules the Lords have but I stupidly believed that I was special. That he would pick me over her. Why? Because I was a fool for him?
She’s supposed to be his chosen. A chosen and a Lady are two very different things. And a Lord doesn’t always marry his chosen. So why her?
It’s soul-crushing to think I would ever get what I want. I never have before. Sin is no different.
I can’t help the sob that bubbles up and he slaps his hand over my mouth, pushing the back of my head to the door. Leaning in, he presses his hard body into mine, his face dropping to whisper in my ear, “You were always meant to be to someone’s secret, Elli. You’re a good fuck, I can’t deny that. But no one will ever love you. Not the real you.”
He shoves me to the side, grabs his shirt off the counter, and rips the door open, slamming it shut behind him, hiding me in his bathroom. “Let’s go,” I hear him say.
“What were you doing in there?” she asks him, obviously thinking something is up.
“Nothing,” he answers. Then I hear his bedroom door open and close as he leaves with his future bride.
_______________
“IN HERE,” KIRAstates. “Put her in bed,” she tells Corbin who carries me.
After Sin left me in his bathroom, I fell to my knees. Crying so hard that I crawled to the toilet and got sick. Kira found me and had Corbin drive my car home while she drove me.
I curl up into a ball, no longer crying. My mind has gone numb, I wish my body would too. The tattoo burns more than the brand ever did. I can feel it throbbing, a reminder that I was so fucking dumb to let him tie me up and have his way with me. He’s right, no man could ever love me.
“Hey.” She kneels beside the bed to get eye level with me.
“Did you know?” I whisper, finally speaking to her. There’s been nothing to say since she found me. She knew I would show up when she informed me Sin was there. And then I overheard Corbin tell her when they entered the bathroom that he had seen Sin and Amelia arguing while he rushed her out of the house. My car was parked right out front. A part of me hopes that Amelia saw it and put two and two together. But if she’s as dumb as me, she won’t even care. She’ll take him any way she can get him.
She sighs. “I found out this morning.”
I sniff. Why didn’t she tell me? Warn me? Did she not stop to think how I’d find out? She’s known that I’m sleeping with her brother. Not that I’m in love with him, but it was obvious that we were together and that I was distraught when I found out he was sleeping with Amelia when she found us in the bathroom. “How long have they known?”
“I don’t know.”
“Three weeks,” Corbin answers, leaning up against the doorframe.
“Babe,” she snaps at him.
“Three weeks?” I whisper, my throat closing up on me all over again.
“They were going to wait until next year after she graduates from Barrington,” he goes on. “But her mother decided to move it up.”
Her mother? Did she do it because of my mom? She told me this morning in my kitchen that they are friends. Did they plan this? “I tried calling him…”
“He’s blocked your number,” he adds matter-of-factly.
“Corbin,” she snaps at him.
“She deserves to know.” His cold eyes meet mine. “It’s over, Elli. It’ll be best for you to come to terms with that sooner rather than later.”
Kira jumps up and goes over, slamming the door in his face.
CHAPTER FORTY
SIN