He had never believed me. Not for a single moment.
All those days at the hotel, the softness I'd offered him, the kisses I'd started , he'd taken every bit of it and still kept one eye open. I had thought I was the one playing the long game. Turns out he had been playing it longer.
I was standing just feet from the Sander gates. The closest I'd been in years. Taylor walked toward me slowly, and something animal surged up inside me, sharp and desperate.
"No!" I stepped back, trying to dart around him. I wasn't going to make it easy. I turned toward the gate and screamed with everything I had. "Dad! Mom! Ethan!"
His bodyguards closed in from both sides, cutting off every angle. They herded me toward the car, and when Taylor reached for me, I sank my teeth into his wrist , hard, without thinking, pure instinct. He didn't flinch. He just looked at me, and the warmth I'd grown used to seeing in his face was gone.
"It seems I've spoiled you for too long," he said quietly.
