Page 71 of Beautiful Villain
I laughed, the sound bitter and raw, scraping my throat on the way out.It didn’t feel like humor.It felt like something breaking.
“Not interested,” I said.“I don’t want—or need—your help.”
Something dark passed through his eyes.Hurt flickered there before he could hide it, and for half a second, it nearly unraveled me.Nearly.
“I never meant to—” he started.
I cut him off before he could finish, the words spilling out too fast, too honest, like if I slowed down I might lose my nerve.“I never want to see you again.Do you hear me?Not in a month.Not in a year.Not when you decide you miss the way I looked at you and want to feel better about yourself.”
He flinched.
And that told me the words had hurt the way I intended them to.The same way he’d hurt me by deceiving me.
“I was never anything to you,” I went on, voice shaking now but unstoppable.“Just a bargaining chip you got too comfortable with.So don’t stand there and pretend this hurts you more than it hurts me.”
“It does hurt,” he said quietly.
I met his gaze then.There was exhaustion carved into his face.The regret he wasn’t trying to hide anymore.And for a split second, it almost cracked me open.
I forced myself to stay hard.
“That doesn’t change what you did, Gianni.”
Silence stretched between us, heavy and suffocating.
“What can I do,” he asked finally, “to make you change your mind and stay?”
The question was rawer than anything he’d said before.I didn’t hesitate.
“Nothing.”
He closed his eyes briefly, like he needed a moment to absorb the impact.When he opened them again, something had shifted—settled.It looked a lot like acceptance.
“Then I’ll have one of my men drive you,” he said.“Anywhere you want.”
“No.”
His brow creased.“Mikayla?—”
“So your men can run back and tell you where I am?”I shot back.“No, Gianni.This ends here.Completely.”
He stared at me, stunned by the finality of it.
“I never want to see you again,” I said.“Not under any circumstances.”
His voice dropped, stripped of pretense.“Even knowing Archie will kill you the moment he finds you no longer under my protection?”
The words should have scared me.
They didn’t.
I felt empty.Spent.Way past fear.
“Even if he does,” I said quietly, “it can’t be any worse than the hundred deaths you’ve already served me.”
Something broke in his expression then—just a fracture, quick and sharp—but I saw it.I felt it echo through my chest like a freight train.
He nodded slowly, once.
