He Let Me Down, I Married A New Man

Chapter 4

Dominic pulled his gaze away and offered Cedric a polite, barely-there smile.

"Don't mention it. Someone needed help. It was nothing."

He gave a few quiet instructions to his people about the damaged car, then walked away—calm, unhurried, as though he'd simply been passing through.

Cedric stood rooted to the spot, watching until Dominic's figure disappeared completely.

Then he spun around and yanked the car door open, panic written all over his face.

"The door was open just now. Did he see you?"

Vivienne was rubbing her arm, startled by the sharpness in his voice.

I shook my head.

He had seen me.

Not only had he seen me, but the instant our eyes met, something in his had flickered unmistakably bright.

Cedric didn't buy it for a second.

He jumped into the car and barked at the driver. "Turn around! We're going home!"

He didn't say a word the entire way back.

His fingers kept unlocking his phone screen and locking it again, over and over. He was wound so tight he looked ready to snap.

The moment the car stopped, he pulled me out, through the yard, through the living room, all the way to the bedroom before he finally let go.

"Pack your things. We're leaving today."

I smoothed out the wrinkles his grip had left on my sleeve and looked at him.

"What's your plan?"

He was shoving cash and jewelry into a suitcase, hands moving fast, words tumbling out between them.

"Take as much as you can. I'll have Porter drive you out of the city tonight. Head to my cousin's place in Willowbrook. He'll set you up somewhere to stay..."

"And then what?"

I cut him off.

"When Dominic Hale comes looking and you can't produce me, what happens to the Shaw family?"

He paused. His voice went hard.

"I'll figure it out."

"Your way of figuring it out is gambling the entire Shaw family on a bluff?"

He didn't answer.

I didn't know what I felt. Something between laughing and aching.

In our last life, he'd kept me at arm's length for years, cold-faced and unreachable, only thawing the slightest bit after I'd wrecked my own body trying to make things right.

This time around, he was desperate, ready to ship me to the other side of the world at a moment's notice.

But what would it change?

I let out a quiet sigh and spoke slowly.

"Cedric, in our last life, you shut me out for years. I ran myself into the ground before you were willing to forgive me even a little."

"What you said at the very end, I won't pretend all of it was true, but at least part of it was. We both know that without me in the picture, the Shaw family would never have gone bankrupt. If that's what you really believe, then why not follow through?"

Those last words of his, I didn't hold them against him.

When someone reaches the end, who hasn't wondered what the road not taken might have looked like?

He was just exhausted. So exhausted that by the time he was dying, he finally let the words out.

I didn't resent him. But I wanted to take a different path this time.

I stepped closer to him.

"Dominic Hale wants me. If he gets what he wants, he'll more than compensate the Shaw family in return.

"Vivienne's engagement won't just survive—the Cross family will be falling over themselves to stay in your good graces. Your company will come back to life. No more scraping by, no more cramming into that drafty apartment and riding the subway every day.

"Isn't that better? You said it yourself, maybe if I'd gone with him, everything would have worked out."

He raised his hand, reaching for my face.

I stepped aside.

Something dimmed in his eyes. His voice came out rough.

"I'm not handing you over to him. His world isn't a place someone like you can survive. He's interested in you because you're new and different. I've seen plenty of men like him. They go through women faster than quarterly reports. With your personality, you'd be cast aside within two weeks, and by then you'd have nowhere to go to cry about it."

From start to finish, not a single word about whether he regretted anything. He just kept tearing Dominic apart, talking faster and faster, his voice climbing higher.

Before I could get a word in, he grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the car.

"Come on. I'm getting you out of the city right now."

I twisted back, trying to pull free. He only held on tighter.

As if one second's hesitation would mean losing me for good.

The car shot forward, tearing out of the estate and onto the winding mountain road.

But less than twenty kilometers out, a wall of black vehicles blocked the road ahead.