Page 94 of A Diamond Deal
The clink of metal on wood pierced his eardrums.Her rings.
No longer did his heart hammer. It stopped beating. His lungs, they froze. But his ears, oversensitised, they listened to her light footsteps as she turned. The ruffle of her silk skirts. He heard the door open. Heard her pause.
The silence pulsed.
The lock clicked.
His fingers went to his throat. He yanked free the knot. But still he could not breathe.
He thudded to his knees. Placed his hands on the floor, palm-side down.
He wasn’t hyperventilating. His body, it was responding to the near-fatal attack of his wife.
He was in control.
He sucked in air through his nostrils—exhaled through his mouth.
Then why did his heart hurt?
Why could he not breathe?
Why did this feel like…death?
Anger quickened Poppy’s step through the corridor with a too high ceiling and too many windows. Too many streaks of sunlight glared into her eyes. Made the tears she held back blur her vision.
He’d had no intention of starting again.
Hewas the liar.
He’d lied about stopping the games.
He’d dismissed her as if she were no one.
She reached out, steadied herself with each step against the wall.
She should have trusted her instincts and run away the minute she’d felt something was wrong. Because noweverythingwas wrong. Nothing was the way it should be. But at least now she knew.
He’d let her get close. He’d let her open herself up to him. He’d let her fall in love with him. And he’d known he was always going to send her away.
He was worse than her father.
He was a monster.
She moved down the corridor to the lift.
She hit the button to call it.Repeatedly.Watched the sundial above its doors move. Oh, so slowly, it climbed upwards to where she was. On the top floor.
No one would come up here, on this side of the monastery. They’d all be in the chapel on the hill.Waiting.But the urgency to get out, to leave, it pulsed through her. She needed out. Off the island. She needed to be far away from him. And maybe then it would stop hurting.
It didn’t before.
She looked down at the crumpled document in her hand. She smoothed it out against her thigh.
She blinked away the mist, looked back down the corridor of green walls to the oak door and iron hinges, locking her out here. On the outside.
A muffled sound ripped free from her mouth.
Flashes of Konstantinos at Isaak’s grave tore through her. The sound his mouth had made. So raw.Thathad been real.
