Scorned Love: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Scorned Fate)
Scorned Love: Chapter 29

It was the longest night of my life. I told Edward that I didn’t want to sleep in the bedroom. He agreed to let me sleep on the living room sectional. He stayed with me.

We cuddled and watched television.

Now and then, he’d ask if I was okay…if I was feeling better.

His henchmen had disappeared and Edward dozed off for a while, but I didn’t dare venture into his office to turn on his laptop. I pretended to be scrolling on social media. I had the Wi-Fi password, which I’d given to Trevor. He just needed me to turn on the laptop and plug in the jump drive. The key-logger had successfully been installed and Trevor had given me the password.

On my last visit to the powder room, Trevor informed me that Nico was free and no charges were brought against him. The relief was immense, but it was a temporary reprieve because his innocence wasn’t cut and dry yet. With Edward’s resources, I was sure my former lover would come up with something else.

So even if Trevor tried to get me to abandon the plan, I wanted to see this to the end and hoped it wouldn’t be bitter. Edward wouldn’t stop until he’d squashed me under his shoe. He didn’t want to see me succeed, and if he controlled Glamourique, Xander and I would forever run into roadblocks.

What I wanted most was to prove that he was behind my attacks and framing Nico for Rossi’s murder.

Minutes earlier, Pancho walked in saying there was a situation in the lobby. I didn’t know where the other guy was and I hadn’t seen him since last night. Nico had been scheduled to be released at eight a.m. and I bet it was him causing a ruckus. I tamped down the urge to flee.

Just a little bit longer, baby.

Edward returned. The satisfied gleam in his eyes was like a beacon that blinded me. I wished I could wipe that smug look off his face and say I choose Nico.

“Your boyfriend is here.”

“I just found out,” I lied and injected anxiety in my whole person. “I think they didn’t know how to tell him I was with you.”

“Well, he knows now. What do you want me to do? Do you want to go back to him?”

After my performance yesterday, I was on a roll. “I think I made a mistake by coming here.”

That threw him off, and his mouth tightened. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want him to target you, too. You were just helping me get over something only you understood, and I’m sure his family doesn’t want me anywhere near him.”

That pleased him. I was getting better at this and I didn’t feel guilty at all. “My life has been a mess since he came into it. I don’t believe he killed Joe Rossi. I would never believe it. But being around him is so chaotic and I don’t think that’s what Donateka needs right now. Just tell him…that I’m with you because you understand me the most.” And to make sure Pancho went with him, I rose from the couch and approached him, took one of his hands in mine and put it against my face. “Be careful. Don’t make him mad.”

“You think he’ll attack me?”

I averted my gaze. “No.”

“Sir, you don’t have to see him,” Pancho cut in. “I can…”

“No.” He fixed the collar of his dress shirt. “It would be my pleasure to tell him that Ivy doesn’t want to see him.”

“No, not that blunt. Just tell him I need more time.”

Displeasure fell over Edward’s face. “That’s a hedging answer. That might not sway him.”

“Nico won’t blow his chances. He’ll give me time.”

Frustration crowded Edward’s face. He was eager to win, but I wasn’t budging on this. As much as I wanted Edward to believe I was conflicted about my feelings for Nico, I didn’t think I was a good enough actress to fake having him completely out of my life.

“Very well. Wait here. I won’t take long.”

The second Edward and Pancho disappeared into the elevators, I texted Trevor. He was in touch with Cesar. While I waited for Trevor to give me the all clear, I extracted the jump drive and made my way to the entrance of the study.

No one else was in the apartment, not even a housekeeper.

My phone vibrated.

I sprinted into the study and powered the laptop. Trust Edward to have top-of-the line technology and speedy processors. The computer booted up in no time and I entered the password. I inserted the jump drive. I didn’t pretend to know how everything worked except it scraped the hard drive for information and transmitted it over the Wi-Fi. A few seconds later, I saw the transfer bar. The speed of the network worked in our favor.

Trevor didn’t respond, and I didn’t bother him. My legs were jumpy, and my stomach had been so twisted with anxiety since last night, it literally hurt. The acid burning up my chest made me uncomfortable, like I was about to have a heart attack.

Oh hell. There was nothing I told Nico that would violate the NDA. I told him Edward went psycho after the cigarette burns. I flinched as I remembered what psycho meant. Edward started with a flogger, but it didn’t satisfy his need to inflict pain. He ended up punching me, and it escalated from there. He threw me down a flight of steps in a rage. When I was down, he kicked me once before he realized what he had done. He left me lying there. Broken. And then he broke up with me.

The ten seconds felt like ten minutes. The chair I was sitting on felt like it was on fire and my legs bounced faster. I chewed my nails.

I shut the laptop and yanked out the jump drive.

Just as I got settled back into the living room couch, the elevator doors slid open. I stood and faced Edward, wringing my fingers like I was nervous. If he only knew what else I was nervous about.

“What happened?” I asked.

“De Lucci is an ass. He’s dangerous, sweetheart.”

“I don’t think he’ll hurt me,” I whispered. Not like you did. I suppressed the anger, the disgust. Staying with Edward had dredged up memories of the past and my feelings about them. And he had the audacity to think Nico was a danger to me? Edward was the one with a history of abuse.

Nico had shown me nothing but selfless love, constant support, and empowerment.

Edward winced as if knowing where my thoughts went. He looked toward his office. “We can’t stay here. I don’t want the De Luccis hounding us.”

My heart jumped and panicked. “I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

“Come away with me.” He smiled his most charming smile. An Edward doting smile. A smile I detested because I knew he was hiding something. Am I reading too much into it because I was hiding something too?

‘Why don’t you freshen up?’ he said. ‘I have clothes laid out for you.’

‘Edward, I don’t think I’m going to stay here for long. Maybe I should return to the loft.’

“Why?” He stepped forward. ‘Am I making you uncomfortable?’

“Yes,” I blurted. I was playing everything by ear. Straddling the line between being authentic and deceptive.

He gave a derisive laugh. ‘I don’t believe this. You’re scared of me and I’m not the murder suspect.”

My therapist had told me that narcissists rarely took ownership of their destructive behaviors. They had this constant sense of entitlement. With Edward, it was complicated. Classic entitlement because he inherited his wealth. I’d never met his father, Gordon Sinclair. If he was a narcissist like his son, then I could only imagine the competition, the belittling of his sons’ achievements. And to a narcissist, not feeling he was number one was destructive.

I understood Edward, but understanding him didn’t mean he earned my sympathy.

Not after what he’d done to me.

“I’m not scared of you.” But I didn’t want to be near him either. Maybe freshening up was a good idea. I realized I had no exit plan, and I wanted to make sure Trevor had what he needed, but I didn’t know how long I could hold Edward off when it came to intimacy.

Even the thought of kissing him was making bile rise in my throat.

“Maybe I’ll take your offer about freshening up.” I moved into him and smiled. The brackets around his mouth told me he wasn’t too pleased with me.

“You do that,” he told me in his Dom voice that made me want to roll my eyes.

How could I have been so naïve and blind?

I lowered my eyes. “Okay.”

I escaped to the second-floor guest bedroom that was supposed to be my bedroom last night. Spying the clothes laid out on the bed, I shuddered. Anything this intimate was making my hair stand on end. Still, I wanted to wash off his smell from me, but I wasn’t that comfortable taking a shower. Instead, I brushed my teeth and splashed water on my face. It was also rebellion. I would rather die than have sex with Edward again.

The smell of the floral soap made me want to throw up. My insecurity about a man going down on me without washing first originated with him. He only put his mouth on me if I smelled like this soap. Shaking off the unpleasant past, I whipped out my phone to see several messages from Trevor.

Thank God.

He shifted to a group text that included Nico, Trevor, Cesar, Matteo, and Dom.

Somehow, that made my pussy clench.

Pocketing my phone, I lingered in the bathroom a second longer. I realized my heart was still pounding from my covert actions.

My mouth twitched. I could be an honorary Arrow, after all.

I exited the bathroom, stared at the clothes on the bed, and decided to just remain in my sweatpants. Yanking open the door, I was surprised to see Pancho, then dread took hold. But before I could react, a jolt seized my body, and I lost control of my faculties and dropped to the floor.

I tasted blood in my mouth. And in the recesses of my mind, I figured I bit my inner cheek.

I couldn’t move, but I saw a blurry image of shoes coming closer.

Edward crouched in front of me. I couldn’t even move my head to look up at him. I lay paralyzed on the floor.

“I guess we’re doing this the hard way, sweetheart.”