His Rival Fixed What He Broke novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Pawn

"Who wrote that line?" Margot said again, louder, and a bellman by the door looked over and away.

Elias took her elbow and walked her into the empty corner behind the concierge desk.

"You're asking me."

"I'm asking the man who read it. Did it have circles over the i's?"

He thought.

"Yes," he said slowly. "Every one."

Margot laughed, and it came out cracked.

"He signed my name to a no. He did it a month after he put a ring on me."

"Margot."

"Don't say you're sorry. You've been sorry for three days. I've been a pawn twice, Elias, once in his bed and once in your head, and I'm tired of being the thing people move across a board."

"Then tell me what you want."

She looked at him.

She looked at his grey eyes and the shirt he had buttoned wrong that morning.

His hand stayed at his side, so he would not reach for her.

"I want to hear you say it plainly," she said. "What did you think of me for three years?"

"That you'd known and chosen him." His jaw worked. "That I'd offered a fair deal, and you'd picked the man who gutted me."

"And last week, in the corridor?"

"I thought I was walking you into the worst afternoon of your life, and that you owed me nothing, and that I'd earned every word you threw."

"Then why did you take the watch back into your hands?"

"Because it was my father's," he said, "and because it was on your wrist, and I couldn't stand it being either."

Something in her chest turned over and held still.

"Upstairs," she said.

"Margot."

"Now. Before I think about it."

He pushed the elevator button himself.

In the car she stood with her shoulder against his arm and watched the numbers climb, and neither of them spoke.

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