Shattered Vows: An Arranged Marriage Standalone Romance (Tarnished Empire)
Shattered Vows: Chapter 32

Elizabeth shouldn’t have been on my arm but Morina took it too far.

Fuck.

I still wanted to drag her across that party and scream she was mine to each and every person who looked her way.

Now, we sat in my car on the way home as she grumbled about wanting to go to the humane society.

That place was one that calmed her and she probably used it a lot of the time to distance herself from me.

I didn’t want distance anymore. I wanted Morina with her crystals and bikinis and baggy t-shirts to be only mine. I’d seen her out there on the beach with Quinton and I knew she might not belong to anyone but I was going to belong beside her at the very least.

Fucking mine.

That was the difference between her and others I’d been with. I hadn’t realized before. She was an ocean that moved and rocked with the wind. She couldn’t be owned by anyone but me. I’d be Poseidon if she was that. I wasn’t letting her go so easily.

The company shares would be worked out.

We could work things out together.

I veered toward where she volunteered.

The animal shelter was probably more for her than the animals. I found she came back happy, full of life, and smiling every time she went. She told me about the dogs and how Moonshine still hadn’t been adopted but she would be.

I had my doubts.

“What do you need to do there tonight?”

She didn’t answer, just glared at me. “I want to go by myself.”

“Too bad.”

“You’re such an asshole. You know that? You do everything for everyone else. You smile in their faces and accommodate everyone’s demands. And with me, you don’t try at all.”

That was probably true.

I didn’t give a fuck.

I let her stew. I’d stew too. She’d gone over the edge and I wasn’t willing to climb back up to sanity with her right now. She stormed out of the car and I sighed and pounded my fist on the dashboard.

You’re going to get a heart attack from a woman who probably wants you to drop dead.

Then I followed her in and watched as she packed up her little box at the front desk and stomped to the kennels. I observed her lighting each candle with care.

She soothed even animal souls with that spirit of hers. Why did she rattle mine instead?

I was hanging on by a thread after seeing her let Quinton pull her top off. I should have seen it coming, though. Elizabeth had been too bold in her advances and I shouldn’t have put my hand on her back. I hadn’t even glanced at Elizabeth throughout it all. I wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone the color of her outfit, if she’d worn heels or not. I could only describe the pain and fury in Morina’s eyes and knew they matched mine. Still, had a man been as close to her as Elizabeth was to me, well, I was already contemplating killing Quinton.

She’d told him the story of her parents. That had pushed me completely over the edge.

Morina murmured to one of the dogs. “Should we play some music or just let the silence descend on us?”

They didn’t answer her but she still put on a thunderstorm. Moonshine whined and Morina opened the kennel and scooped her up. Her hair fell over her face and covered the dog too. The pup was almost too big for her to hold.

She went down the line, catering to each of the animals with the same amount of care, her attention never drifting back to me.

And my attention was solely on her. She’d been abandoned again and again by her parents and then one final time. She didn’t tell me they’d done that to her.

I understood her pain better and it was only because another man pulled the information from her.

“Why didn’t you tell me about your parents were addicts?”

She glanced back and then rolled her eyes. “So you were eavesdropping too?”

“Answer the question, Morina.”

“Because there’s nothing to tell, Bastian. I told you they left now and then. You didn’t ask much else and so I didn’t share much else.”

“They left you.”

“So what? Everyone leaves when they die.”

“They left you over and over again, you said. And you thought that was your fault. You don’t think that’s something you should share with the person you’re in a relationship with?”

“A relationship?” Her eyes flared, burning blue fire as she suddenly paced past me, box under her arm, toward the front of the building. “What relationship?”

“We’re married.”

“Are we?” She shoved the box away. “Is that why you let some woman rub herself all over you and whisper in your ear?” She whipped the fire of her words at me fast, and with her hands on her hips, I knew she was ready to burn me down.

Fine. We would end this now.

“You started that with your snide comment about a public separation on the way over.”

“Oh my God. Do you make all our marriage decisions on your own now?”

“As if you would want to plan any of those decisions,” I grumbled, pissed that she was right.

“That’s bullshit. I’ve gone above and beyond in this stupid arrangement. I’ve listened to you about oil and green energy and terminals and gone to visit the company. I’ve done the board meetings. Don’t act like I’m not involved.”

“I’ll agree to that. You’ve done great.” I nodded, ready to let the whole thing go. “We need to just keep working together.”

“Work together? Right. Work together.” She shook her head like she couldn’t handle it. “Bastian, Bastian, Bastian. What a guy. Always working with everyone. Too bad he doesn’t know how to make a goddamn real move and risk it with me. So, I get you in the dark when no one’s looking, like I’ll forget in the morning. It’s bullshit.”

“What?” I whispered, sure I heard her wrong.

“I don’t want Bastian. I want Sebastian Armanelli, the man who knows how to take what’s his and claim it. But if you’re not him, then fuck you.” She spat the words at me, and turned to leave.

She shined the light on my flaws, cut them up, and handed them to me on a platter. I wanted to punish her for it and then fuck her quiet while I made love to her for calling attention to what no one else could. She stirred the devil and the sinner in me, the man who was the head of the mafia. I didn’t want to hide him with her. Not anymore.

My hand shot out.

Bastian was gone.