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She makes a good point and I’m running out of steam. Maybe in another life, once Santino and Alto and all their cronies liedead, I will have time to explain things, but not now. Not with Alto so deeply manipulating things I’ve been blind to.

“Because I like the thrill of the hunt,” I say tightly. “You have no idea who to trust. I’ve been talking to your mother for months and God knows what else is in play, so think of this as the moment you realize you’re all alone, Jasmine. You can’t trust anyone, so what are you going to do? Sit there and wait for me to really come for you? Or make it interesting and try and get new security?” I scoff darkly. “As if there’s anyone who can really stop me.”

Jasmine’s eyes dart back and forth as she gasps, hyperventilating slightly as she stumbles away from me. Her tears continue to fall, but her sobs appear to catch in her throat.

“Get out,” she croaks.

“What, you don’t want to keep playing?” I press, trying to stoke her anger. “You don’t want to hear who else I’ve been talking to while distracting you with my dick?”

“Get the fuck out!” she screams. “Get out! Get out!” In a rush she’s behind the desk and she pulls a handgun from the drawer, aiming it right at me.

I almost want her to pull the trigger. The heartbreak on her face kills me.

“Get. Out. And if I ever see even a single hair of yours again, I’ll kill you. Understand? I’ll fucking kill you. Now get out!”

30

JASMINE

“Get out!”

Roman’s gone before I even finish screaming at him and the moment the door closes, I collapse to the floor and sob. This doesn’t make any sense. Roman coming here was supposed to be a good thing. I need his strength. I need his comfort. I need him to hold me while I cry and promise me he’ll do everything to make sure Alto suffers.

Instead, he stands there and tells me it was him all along? That our entire relationship was part of one big sham to get close to me and dismantle my family from the inside?

And it’s worked.

My father is dead.

My mother doesn’t even fully realize what she’s done.

And I am alone.

The tears suffocate me with how deeply the grief pours through me. I can barely breathe, and it feels like my chest is cracked and the splinters are trying to claw their way free.

I was going to tell him I was pregnant. Ask him to help protect our family.

Instead, he’s the one I need protecting from.

My Ren.

My rescuer.

I’m not sure how long I stay on the floor crying. Several guards knock on the door from time to time but none of them enter. They leave me to my grief not out of unkindness but because they don’t know what to do.

Neither do I.

When the tears stop, my legs are numb from sitting on the floor for so long and the pain in my chest is replaced by a yawning ache of hollowness that stretches on forever. Trying to logically organize my thoughts feels pointless because each time I think about Roman standing there telling me he’s the one who causedallof this, my heart breaks all over again.

I think I loved him.

All this time it was him. Or so he claims.

Wandering the manor in the dark gives me time to replay that entire conversation now that I’ve shed enough tears to think straight. It’s alarming how quickly Roman went from comforting to cold, how easily he took the blame. But then why tell me not to trust a single Gatti, not to trust a single person in my employ? Was he implying that there are other plots at work that could threaten my life?

Why tell me that at all if he wanted them to succeed?

Or am I just trying to find a way to excuse his actions because I don’t want to believe I fell for such a terrible, cruel man?