Page 238 of Powerhouse: Boxed Set
No.
Not Baron Rawlings…
I was shaking my head before she was even done speaking.
She sighed, folding her arms across her chest. “Don’t try my patience any more than you already have, Elaine. This is a good opportunity for you. And a good opportunity for the Constantine name. Do something for the family, for a change.”
Constantines and Rawlings…it made my skin crawl.
“The tabloids would love it,” she said. “It would be the wedding of the decade.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t want to marry Christopher Rawlings.”
She scoffed at me. “You don’t have to like him. That’s hardly the point of a good marriage. What I would expect is that you would see the value in my proposition. A fresh start, in England, with a good family name and a ring on your finger.”
Mom was still talking, rattling off the benefits.
“I’ll finish your debts with the Powers one last time. You’ll be out of the cycle. No drugs in your life, no losers to hole up in the pits of shit with. Baron Rawlings was very clear on that. Nobody would come within a mile of you. Nobody they didn’t approve of.”
I was still shaking my head. “Baron Rawlings is a sick fuck.”
“Watch your mouth!” she said. “Baron Rawlings is a fine man, from a fine family lineage.”
I did watch my mouth. It shut tight. Just as I always had done.
I was already walking away from her as she cursed under her breath.
“I mean it, Elaine,” she said. “Accept Christopher’s proposal or you’re on your own. I’m not digging you out ever again.”
I didn’t want her to. Not anymore. The sails of hope in me died their death for the last time. I was lost to everything. Even myself.
I’d never marry Christopher Rawlings.Never.
My legs were still tingling from the cuts, and my cheek was tingling from the cold hard slap of my mother. My ass was still hurting from Lucian’s cock, and my heart was shrinking from years of disgrace and fear and self-hate, and I was ready.
I could never be with Lucian. I should never want to be. I could never dig myself out of the life I’d created, amongst the people who’d created me.
I let out a sigh as I took the final staircase back down to the garden party, leaving my mother upstairs with folded arms, cursing my name.
I had the answer.
This time, for myself, I had the answer.
If the Power brothers, or Lucian Morelli, or Reverend Lynch weren’t coming for me pretty soon, I’d be taking myself and saving them the trouble.
With the first shred of self-respect I’d allowed myself in years, I smiled. Fuck the Power brothers, and fuck the Morellis, and fuck the whole host of people aching to be a part of my demise.
My final breath belonged to one person only.
Me.
My end would be on my own terms, and soon.
Really damn soon.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Lucian
