“Yes?” Lottie croaked.
“Do you have any rules you’d like her to follow?”
“I…I need to sit down.” Lottie wobbled over to a couch, falling on it instantly.
“Of course, dear, you have time to think on them.” Tansy’s inflection was so easy, like we were discussing what we would get for lunch.
I couldn’t breathe.
Lottie looked like she was going to pass out.
Footfalls sounded, pounding, heavy things that echoed and boomed. A moment later, Grayson appeared on the stairs. His eyes darted around, taking in Tansy, Lottie, me, and doing it in reverse.
“What the fuck is happening?”
“Lottie is moving in,” Tansy said easily. “We’re discussing your mistress arrangements.”
A tear fell down Lottie’s cheek.
I loved Grayson. I’d been in love with him, but we could never be together.
What was I doing here?
I scrambled to get as much of the sheets as I could to cover myself, climbing off the bed and tripping as I did so.
“Story, wait,” Grayson started. “Let me…”
My eyes were stuck on Lottie. “I’m sorry, Lottie, I—”
I ran down the stairs.
I only made it to the hallway before I collapsed into a heap of tears. The marble floor seeped through the thin silk sheets, cold, abrasive. I wasn’t sure how long I sat like that, the sound of the waves outside muffled by the glass.
When suddenly thwack.
A thick stack of cash hit my thigh.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
More cash landed on me, between my thighs, on my shin, pelting me, covering me. More cash than I’d ever seen in my life, flying at me. I looked up, finding Grayson.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s twenty million dollars,” he said. “Get the fuck out and go. Never come back.”
I stared up at Grayson, speechless. He’d painted me in green, my only armor his sheets. It took a moment to swallow the tears in my throat, to speak through the hurt. He’d just thrown cash at me like I was nothing.
Like I was less than nothing.
“So that’s it?” I said, voice hoarse. “It’s really true? You’re marrying her and leaving me in the dust.”
His eyes were red but brutal.
“You promised you wouldn’t do this to me,” I said quietly. “Now not just everyone in Crowne Hall knows we’re together, but everyone in the fucking world. But they also know you’re marrying Charlotte. You didn’t take us out of the dark. You just shoved me deeper into the shadows. You made me your public mistress. You made me your dirty secret. You made me your lie. Why?”
He clenched his jaw. “Just go.”
“You’re a coward, Grayson Crowne. Afraid to show your insides. Afraid to be truly vulnerable. Afraid.”