Page 108 of Between Love and Loathing

“She did the job, but she’s not going to stick around when she figures that out.”

“She agreed to it, Natya. Agreed to move in with me too. She agreed to everything.”

Natya scoffed. “Did she think you’d fall for her? You can’t love her like you loved me, Dom. What we have is—”

“Nothing.” I cut her off. “I told you I’d never love like that again. And I don’t, nor would I ever want to. With you, I enjoyed it and pursued it. With her, I hate it and have tried to avoid it.”

“Why?” she whispered, almost like she was scared to hear it.

“Because I know the love I feel for her won’t simply hurt me like yours did. It will destroy me. And even still, it’s the only love I want for the rest of my life.”

I waited a beat to hear if Natya would respond, if she would finally realize now was the time to apologize and try to let me go. All I heard was silence though.

“People thought I was joking when I said she was my future wife. Natya, I’m not. You so much as look at my future wife wrong after this, I’m coming for you. I will tear apart your career, go to the feds about your laundering, and hang you out to dry for the lying piece of shit that you are. You get me?”

“Dom, I would never—”

“We have evidence of everything you’ve done, Natya. Don’t fuck with her or me. Ever. Again.”

I hung up.

There was nothing left to say to the woman. I didn’t care about her enough to listen to anything else she wanted to tell me.

I had to plan how I was going to make Clara my wife, and that meant I was going to have to grovel and make her believe she was it for me. I started with emails first and stayed up late into the night before I gave her the space she requested and went to my own bed.

But when I woke in the morning, Clara was gone.

CLARA

“Of course I used her. She was a perfect girlfriend for the press. Wouldn’t you say so?”

And he’d actually waited for her response.

More silence.

“She agreed to it, Natya. Agreed to move in with me too. She agreed to everything.”

He still had such emotion, such anger, such a feeling toward her that it hurt to listen anymore.

“Nothing. I told you I’d never love like that again.”

I backed away. The reinforcement of his statement, the doubling down of his emotions, the fact that he contacted her in the middle of the night. This all left no room for me.

I packed quietly, sent emails off quickly, and texted Evie early that next morning for Dex’s number.

She called immediately. “What’s wrong?”

“I just need a place to stay. I can’t be here with Dominic after what happened with Natya last night.”

She waited in silence, but I wasn’t giving any more right now. “Well, we have an apartment building in LA that Declan and I are staying at. Come here. I’ll make sure the doorman lets you up.”

“No. I need to find my own apartment and…” I took a deep breath. I hated telling someone no, but this was survival. Survival didn’t have formalities or expectations attached to it.

“I get it. I’ll get you a furnished place. The doorman will have your apartment number when you get here. You realize, though, you own shares now, Clara. You get that right? All this is yours too,” Evie explained to me.

I hadn’t even looked over the paperwork Mrs. Johnson delivered well enough to understand. And the thought made me almost feel as if I couldn’t breathe. There were too many things changing, too many pieces of my life I still had to fit together, too much pain I had to comprehend to figure out my finances now. I cleared my throat. “I… Right.”

“We’ll figure it all out. Go to the apartment. Rest. Call me after, okay? Do you need—”