He Broke His Vow, I Broke Him

Chapter 3

"Beyond saving."

I stood there, drifting.

Eleanor's death was the one secret no one in the family ever spoke of.

A secret tied to the most reckless, most out-of-control version of Vera Quinn.

The smell of that rainy night three years ago seeped back into my lungs.

That year, the wild, headstrong mob princess Vera Quinn had clung to a critically wounded Leo Lawson in a hospital corridor, sobbing and demanding to marry him.

Right now. This instant.

But her mother, that formidable woman who had carried half the Quinn family empire on her shoulders her entire life, had refused outright.

She said Leo had the heart of a wolf. She said I would live to regret it.

What did I know how to do with that?

A girl drunk on love only sees the whole world standing between her and happiness.

So I did exactly what Vera Quinn would do.

Reckless, headstrong, and completely unstoppable, Vera Quinn walked straight into enemy territory, alone, while they were in the middle of a firefight with our men.

Even now, I still can't explain what I was trying to prove.

My conviction?

Or was I just trying to force my mother's hand?

Then Eleanor came charging in like a woman possessed, throwing herself in front of the bullet aimed at my heart.

"...Fine. Have it your way. Be good to each other."

She spent her last breath giving me what I wanted.

Rain hammered the walls outside the memorial hall.

Leo knelt before Eleanor's portrait, touching his forehead to the floor, once and then again.

Until his forehead split open. Blood and rain soaked his face.

"Mom, I, Leo Lawson, swear to God. I will love Vera and Vera alone for the rest of my life.

"I'll protect her with my life. I'll never let her suffer a moment's pain. If I ever break this vow, may I die a miserable death."

The fire in his eyes looked so real. I almost believed that warmth could reach through the cold of Eleanor's death.

Now.

I looked up and met Leo's eyes.

"Beyond saving?"

"Leo. Every single word you swore before my mother's portrait. Do you remember any of it?"

Leo's whole body jerked. The arm holding the bat went slack.

"Lily's young. She didn't mean it. Let it go."

She didn't mean it?

I shook my head.

"Some things, once you say them, come with a price."

Force surged through my arm. I swung the bat high and brought it crashing down toward Lily with everything I had.

Crack!

It didn't land on Lily. It landed on Leo.

He threw himself in front of her, hauling her hard against his chest.

He grunted, face draining pale in an instant, but his hold on Lily never faltered. He pressed her even deeper into him.

'Like...'

'Just like that rainy night, when he'd been covered in blood, holding me exactly the same way.'

"Don't be afraid, Vera. I'm here."

I kept swinging. Harder. Every blow a dead weight hammering into his body.

Through the haze, I heard him murmur softly to the woman in his arms.

"Don't be afraid, Lily. I'm here."

...

All the fury and madness drained out of me at once.

My arm fell.

Clatter.

The bat hit the floor.

I stood there, frozen, watching him ignore his own wounds and check anxiously on the woman in his arms.

Then he looked up at me.

The warmth and love that used to live in his eyes were long gone.

What remained was contempt and disappointment.

In that moment, I finally understood everything.

The past we'd paid for in blood, all the vows and the tears, he had thrown every last bit of it away with his own hands.

Not a misunderstanding. Not a passing mood.

He truly didn't love me anymore.