Page 69 of The Husband Contract

“Yes, you do, Willow. I spoke to my brother last week. He loved you. He was planning a future with you, and you ended things, and you took him and?—"

"I'm sorry, Sebastian, I just—" I shake my head. Is this man crazy? Is his brother crazy? I don’t want to be mean, but I am just not sure what to say.

"I'm telling you, the last guy I was speaking to, and he was not my boyfriend, went by the name of Clark Kent."

"Well, my brother loves superheroes, and he's really rich, and that's probably why he gave you a fake name."

"Okay, wait." I rub my eyes. "Does your brother work in insurance?"

"I mean, we own a couple of insurance companies."

"But he looks nothing like you."

"Sergio is a handsome man in his own right," he growls.

"I’m sorry, I'm not saying that he wasn’t. I'm not trying to be mean here, but I barely knew him."

"I'm not going to talk about this anymore, Willow. Youhurt him. You destroyed him. He's left the country because of you."

"He did?" My jaw drops. "Maybe you need to get him professional help, Sebastian, because honestly, I don’t know what to tell you. It was never that deep. Really and truly."

"So you admit you were seeing him for multiple months?"

"Well, no, we weren’t—" I realize that he's not listening to me. I realize that he doesn’t care what I have to say. "Honestly, Sebastian, I didn’t know he was your brother. I didn’t even know his real name was Sergio."

"Well, I know what my brother told me, and I know how he feels now. And like I told you, Willow, my family comes first. You can’t think I would let you get away with how you treated him. And then, not even months later, you're coming on to me. You're sleeping with me. You're telling me you love me."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"I guess maybe a week ago, but look, I don’t know what he's told you. I don’t know if he exaggerated what went on between us."

"But you still took from him, didn’t you?"

I stare at him, not sure what he's talking about.

"And now you think you're living the life of Riley, huh? You were about to lose your bed and breakfast, so you thought you’d take a couple of million."

"A couple of million?” I can’t stop myself from laughing again because this is a joke. "Maybe he lost that money himself because he sure didn’t give it to me."

"Sure, sure.”

“Sebastian. So what was all that talk of this being fate?” I look up into his eyes and shiver at the lack of emotion. No smile for me. There’s no love. There’s nothing. Just coldness. I feel like I'm in a freezer.

"Like I said, Willow, I don’t love you.”

“But you married me."

"I married you because now I can control you. Now you have to do my bidding, because now I know what's most important to you.” His lips twist up. "Funny how life works, right?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I think your friends, Katherine and Brielle, are your family."

"They are."

"And I think, even though you're twisted and heartless when it comes to men, you'd do almost anything for those two—to make sure they don’t suffer any consequences from your bad actions."

"I don’t understand what you're saying."