by Ella Miles
Zeke doesn’t move.
“Zeke, cross out Hugo’s name.”
He pauses for a second, and then he carefully thumbs the names on the back of my neck before pressing the cold of the metal against my base.
I suck in a breath at the same time he slices through the name. I’ve never wanted to feel pain as much as I do right now. I needed to feel his name ripped from my body.
I feel strong.
Powerful.
I know exactly what I’m doing—taking my life back, one man at a time. I will own my own life, my own name, and my own heart again. Zeke’s name will be the hardest to cross out, but someday, I’ll cross it out. When I deliver Zeke safely to Lucy, back to his own world.
Zeke blows on the wound gently, and then he ties my hair up with a scrunchie from his arm, keeping my hair from getting into the fresh wound.
I bite my lip to keep from smiling. How can he be so kind to me? So protective? So caring?
My heart is doing flips at the small gesture.
I turn and face him.
“Why did I just scar your neck? Why did I cross through Hugo’s name?”
“Because I’m finally ready to divorce him.”
He gasps.
“Once I file, once the agreement of the prenup is complete, then you can at least know one truth.”
31
Zeke
Siren starts to walk away but stops. She looks at me, and I don’t see fear like I expect. I see hope.
“You’re my anchor, Zeke. Don’t forget that.”
I blink rapidly, not understanding.
“What does that mean?”
She smiles softly, as if the secret her words are hiding is precious and nice instead of what they really are—just one more lie.
“It means you’re my strong, unmoving force. You keep me grounded. You ensure I live, even when I should die. You are the one stable thing in my life. You can make sure that I come back—not by saving me, but by never letting me truly go in the first place. You anchor me here.”
Her words tell me everything and nothing.
But they keep her here for a second longer—another second for me to come to my senses and realize what she’s doing.
At first, I thought she stayed married because she loved him. Maybe she did once, but that love has been lost. I don’t know what the prenup she signed says, but it must be bad if it keeps her married to Hugo. Whatever she must do in order to get the divorce they both want will hurt her. And hurting her will hurt me.
“Don’t…” I reach out, as if my hand will stop her. It won’t. Nothing will now that’s she made up her mind.
I’m torn. I want her to divorce him. I want her to be rid of him. I want to have a sliver of hope that we could have a future if we ever forgave each other for all the lying.
But I don’t want her to leave. I don’t want her to get hurt.
“What does the prenup say?” I ask, scared of what she’s going to say.
She sighs. “It says that soon I’m going to be stronger than I’ve ever been. It says that soon I’ll feel a little freer than I felt before.”
And then she’s gone. Running away from me.
I could chase her.
I could demand she tell me.
I could keep her here until she tells me the truth.
But I won’t. If you love someone, you set them free. Do I love her?
Maybe.
Definitely.
Is it healthy?
Hell no.
Will our love last?
Doubtful. I doubt both of us will still be breathing a year from now.
Does it stop me from chasing after her?
Absolutely not.
I run once I realize what I want. Her unhurt. Her alive. I don’t want her in pain. I don’t want her dead. I need to find her. I can’t let her go.
But Siren knows the jungle better than I do. By the time I make it back to my truck, she’s already gone.
It won’t stop me from chasing after her. It won’t stop me from saving her if I have to.
I vowed I would stop saving her, but I can’t.
If there is a chance I was wrong about her this whole time, if there’s a chance we can heal the wounds we’ve caused in each other’s hearts, then I’ll never forgive myself for not saving her.
32
Siren
I meet Hugo at the house we technically own together, but I’ve never spent more than a night in it since we got married. The house is small, modest. He doesn’t stay on this island often. Just when he wants something from me.
Like now.
The anger flares in his eyes as he stands in front of the front door.
“You have some balls showing up here,” he says.
I raise an eyebrow. “This is my house.”
“You stole from my parents,” Hugo growls. It’s not as deep or sexy as when Zeke growls. Hugo bares his teeth during his growl, making it frightening.
“Yea, what are you going to do about it?” He can’t do anything to me.
“I was going to add it to your debt and make you pay every penny back with interest,” he yells.
“You can’t prove I stole the money. Even Julian will back me up. I don’t owe you anything.”
He huffs. “Then I’ll kill that boyfriend of yours.”
I laugh. “Not if he kills you first.”
Fear—I see the fear in his eyes. It gives me satisfaction, and I smirk a little, trying to be brave for the next step. In a few seconds, Hugo’s going to be the one with the smirk, not me.
“What are you doing here, Aria?”
“I’m giving you what you want.”
“Which is what?”
“A divorce.”
The words alone scare the crap out of me. I’m giving up so much. Possibly everything. I’m chancing everything by divorcing Hugo. It’s necessary.
It’s the only way to gain everything.
“I don’t believe you,” Hugo says.
“Let me inside.”
Hugo stares at me, trying to understand why I’m doing this. The reason he wrote this in the prenup was because, at the time, he wanted me to stay married to him forever. He thought with this prenup, I’d never divorce him. I’d be his forever. Trapped in a binding contract. He could flaunt it over me for the rest of my life.
Hugo doesn’t really want a divorce. He wants control over me. It’s all he’s wanted since I was eighteen.
He’s about to get one last drop of power over me, then nothing, forever.
He marches inside, and I follow him through the house he clearly hasn’t kept up. The house is dingy. Clothes and trash clutter most of the rooms. Hugo is headed for one room, in particular, a room he made into an office.
He heads to a filing cabinet and unlocks it, pulling open the top drawer roughly, almost pulling the entire cabinet down. His eyes lock with mine, glaring over the cabinet. Then he’s searching through the papers until he finds what he’s looking for.
He flings the papers on the desk.
“Read it again. And then tell me you still want a divorce,” he says.
I feel my hands tremble. But I fist them and then open them, forcing my body to settle. I’m making the right decision—the only decision. I’m stronger than what Hugo has planned.
I can do this. I can win.
But what if I don’t?
I told Zeke not to save me.
Julian might, just to keep his best asset close.
But what if neither of them comes? What if I can’t save myself?
Then I’ll die happy, no longer married to this asshole.
I flip through the papers quickly, reading the crucial part again, trying to decipher any hidden meaning of the words I haven’t realized before. But I find no hidden meaning.
The prenup is on top, along with divorce papers Hugo had drawn up in case I ever wanted a divorce.
“Got a pen?” I ask.
Hugo laughs, likes he thinks I’m bluffing. H
e thinks I won’t really sign the papers.
He continues to chuckle as he opens the desk drawer, facing me head-on. He pulls out a pen and holds it out to me.
He’s not going to make any of this easy—not one second.
My heart thumps wildly. My hands clam up. Goosebumps form on my arms. There is no hiding my fear from Hugo. Not this time.
Slowly, I take the pen from him. It doesn’t matter that he knows I’m scared. What matters is that I sign the papers. That is my moment of strength.
I flip to the last page, and I sign my name.
Hugo’s jaw hits the floor as I toss the papers in his face.
“Do your worst,” I say.
33
Zeke
It’s been one week since Siren left.
Vanished, more like it. I can’t find her anywhere. Not a Julian’s. Nowhere near the compound. Nowhere on the island. I’ve even called my contacts to start looking for her, but they can’t find her either.
Siren isn’t the only person who vanished. Lucy is still missing.
I’ve done everything short of contacting Enzo Black to find her.
My only comfort is that I don’t think Julian knows where they are either.
At least, I don’t think so. But I’m out of options. Julian may not care where Lucy is, but he cares about Siren.
I march into his office as his butler tries to stop me.
“Julian,” I say as I kick open his door.
“I’m so sorry, sir. He just stormed in,” the butler says.
“It’s okay, Hanson. Zeke is always welcome here.”
The butler leaves in a scurry.
“What do you want?” Julian asks, reading his newspaper.
“Tell me what the prenup said,” I say.
His eyes draw up over the newspaper. And he grins. “I told you to ask Aria. It’s not my truth to tell.”
“I would, except she’s disappeared. Know anything about that?”
He scoffs. “She’ll turn up again. She made a vow to me. Trust me, she’ll never break it.”
I glare at him, ripping the newspaper from his hands. “You really think Siren cares about a vow she made to you to save a man she hates?”
“Yes, because you don’t understand who Aria is. You don’t understand what she’s done.”
He doesn’t realize what’s happened. He doesn’t realize what Siren’s done.
“What did the prenup say?” I ask, my voice gravely and full of anger.
“Why?”
“Because she signed the divorce papers.”
“Shit,” Julian jumps up faster than I’ve ever seen him. He’s on his phone in a second, barking orders to his men to go search for Siren.
For the first time, Julian and I just got on the same side, if only for a brief second.
34
Siren
“He’s here,” Hugo says, glancing out our hotel window. After I signed the divorce papers, we went to Portugal. Apparently, Hugo wasn’t too surprised I signed the papers because he had a whole plan already in place. He put everything in motion with one phone call.
I sit on the edge of the hotel bed. It’s a cheap room, and the bed dips wherever I sit on it.
“It’s time to go,” Hugo says.
“Why?” I ask, hoping for one last chance to convince Hugo not to do this.
He stares at me—really stares—like he’s taking a mental picture to remember this moment forever. And that terrifies me. If he’s taking a picture, then this is goodbye for real. He doesn’t think I’m going to survive this. He doesn’t think I’ll be coming back next week to chew him out.
“You shouldn’t have stolen the money from my parents,” he says.
“Maybe not. They aren’t bad people per se, they just raised a horrible son.”
Hugo frowns.
“But that’s not why you are doing this, Hugo. That’s not why you added the provision to the prenup that allowed you to do this. Why did you?”
There is a knock at our hotel room door. My time is up.
“Because you were mine. Mine to love. Mine to keep. Mine to hold. And I knew if I had to ever let you go, this was the only way I could bear it.”
Those were not the words I was expecting to hear. I wasn’t expecting Hugo to admit that he loved me. I assumed he would be doing this for revenge and for his sick twisted pleasure.
“You don’t get to claim you are selling me for love,” I say.
“No, but love is the reason all the same.”
Hugo opens the door, and a man walks in. This isn’t the man I’m being sold to. This is his henchman.
“This the girl?” The man asks.
Hugo nods.
“Wow, an obedient one. You don’t even need ropes or handcuffs.”
Hugo shakes his head sadly. “She’s the least obedient person I know. She will fight harder than any woman your master has ever bought. And she will burn the castle down with her. She’s not going to submit. She’s going to destroy you. Only if your master is smart about controlling her will you have a chance against her. But even then, she will eventually win. She always wins.”
Our eyes lock as he speaks so highly of me.
“Then why is she submitting now?” the man asks.
“Because this is the only way to get what she wants. And she doesn’t fear being sold. She doesn’t fear you. She fears nothing, because she is stronger than you could ever imagine,” Hugo says.
“Her name?” the man asks, continuing to talk about me like I’m not here.
I wait for Hugo to say Aria, or maybe bitch, or cunt, if he’s in a particularly foul mood. Instead, he says, “Siren.”
It feels like a truce. He’s admitting who I really am and who I deserve to be with. That I need to be free of him. That I belong with Zeke.
“Is she ready?” the man asks.
“Almost,” Hugo walks over to me and holds out his hand, demanding me to turn over my gun.
I do. Then Hugo gives me a quick pat-down. He knows I always carry more than one weapon, but when he finds the knife buried in my boot, Hugo just winks at me and lets me keep it.
I have a weapon, for now at least.
Why is Hugo being nice to me?
Surprising my further, Hugo wraps his arms around me, hugging me. “I could have loved you forever, but that wouldn’t have been fair to you. You deserve someone worthy of you.”
I blink, rapidly as he pulls away and walks over to the divorce papers. He signs them, knowing I’ll keep my word and willingly go with the man. At least until I get to his car, then all bets are off.
“Why?” I ask one last time.
Hugo smiles at me.
“He will only come if you are in danger. You two need all the help you can get in the love department,” Hugo says. Then he slings his bag over his shoulder, and walks out the door.
I’m left stunned by Hugo’s admission. Maybe the prenup was originally to ensure I never divorced him, but now he’s keeping to the contract to push Zeke and me together.
Unbelievable.
It’s not true. Hugo is an evil, manipulative asshole.
An asshole I once loved.
But an asshole all the same. A man I won’t think of again after today.
Hugo is wrong about Zeke coming for me. I told him not to, and he’ll listen. This won’t bring Zeke and me closer together. Even if it did, this isn’t how I want us to end up together. I want us to choose each other, not be scared of losing each other.
After Hugo leaves, my purchaser’s henchman opens the door, and three other men run inside with guns.
Apparently, Hugo had already warned them I wasn’t going to go with them easy. I’m a fighter.
They give me no choice but to surrender, binding my hands and ankles. Then I’m dragged to the back of a truck where the three men surround me.
Now doesn’t seem like the best time to escape. But I will escape. And I will kill every one of these men.
A truck ride, a plane r
ide, and another car ride later, I’m dragged into a house and thrown in the basement.
I can save myself. I can escape.
But when I see a dozen eyes staring back at me, I realize it’s not just myself that needs saving. I wasn’t counting on having to save someone else too.
35
Hugo
Selling Aria hurt more than I thought it would. I knew I would have to do it someday, even when I added that provision to the prenup. Aria was never really mine. I thought being able to control her would feel like she was mine, even when she stopped loving me.
But it doesn’t.
I have no control.
I knew when we said our wedding vows that Aria was too good for me. I knew this is how our marriage would end. But I wasn’t prepared for what signing the divorce papers would feel like.
It destroyed me singing my name next to Aria’s, telling the world that I no longer care about this woman, and admitting Aria is no longer mine.
In reality, she hasn’t been mine for years.
Aria will escape. I won’t be here when she does. Being sold is temporary. Aria can never be contained by a man. Never be owned.
Zeke Kane might be the only man who can tame her. And even he will have to fight constantly to keep her his. Eventually, she will get free of even him.
Aria Torres is invincible. She’s independent and kind and selfless. And she deserved better.
But so did I.
Aria was the only woman who could give me what I needed. But what I asked for was too great. I needed forgiveness, in spite of who I was. I needed to be forgiven again and again.
Yes, I fucked up. I cheated on her. I broke Aria’s heart.
But Aria is forgiveness. She is kindness. So I thought she would forgive me.
We were kids when we got married. I didn’t understand what marriage was. I was a drug addict. I was constantly fucked up and made a lot of bad decisions.
The only good decision I made was marrying Aria.
I loved her desperately, but I cost her everything. Ten years of her life she gave to save me. And I paid her back by cheating on her. That isn’t something even the highest angel can forgive.