Chapter 10
Logan arrived under guard an hour later.
He looked smaller without the front door behind him.
Without Savannah beside him.
Without Victor’s promises.
I sat across from him.
“Why?”
He laughed softly.
“You know why.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I know what Victor wanted. I want what you wanted.”
That took longer.
Good.
Finally:
“I was tired of being Mr. Bianca Ashford.”
There it was.
Nothing profound.
Nothing ideological.
A wounded man standing beside a powerful woman and deciding her success had stolen something from him.
“You married me knowing who I was.”
“You weren’t head of operations then.”
“True.”
“You weren’t making decisions that moved half the city.”
“True.”
“You didn’t have men twice my age standing when you entered rooms.”
I almost smiled.
“And that hurt?”
“Yes.”
Honesty finally.
“What did Savannah give you?”
He looked toward the wall.
“Admiration.”
Of course.
Not love.
Admiration.
She saw executive assistant becoming mistress as elevation.
He saw mistress admiring him as proof he still mattered.
Two insecure people using each other as mirrors.
“And Victor?”
“A place.”
“What place?”
“Council.”
I laughed.
Logan looked angry.
“He promised.”
“No.”
I leaned forward.
“He promised you access while you were useful.”
Silence.
“You think Victor was going to let a Mercer husband sit above Ashford blood?”
His face changed.
There.
He had never asked.
Ambition avoids questions that might shrink the fantasy.
I continued.
“After I was removed, you were next.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You know that?”
“I know Victor.”
That was enough.
Logan stared at the floor.
Then whispered:
“I loved you once.”
I believed him.
That made it worse, not better.
“You should have left when love ended.”
He looked at me.
“And lose everything?”
There.
The truth beneath the truth.
Not me.
Everything.
The estate.
The name.
The rooms where people looked at him differently because he arrived beside Bianca Ashford.
The marriage had become access.
When affection died, possession remained.
I stood.
“You destroyed Ruby’s crib because you thought my home was yours.”
He said nothing.
“No.”
May you like
I looked down at him.
“You destroyed it because you were terrified of discovering it never was.”
