The Day He Let Me Go, I Let Him Go Forever

I spiked the drink of Daniel Falkner, Belcaster's big shot, three years ago.

After that night of madness, he doesn't punish me. Instead, he takes my waist in his hands and drives into me until my legs go weak, calling me "princess", again and again.

But just as I'm about to confess, Serena Jarman, the woman he never gets over, returns.

For her sake, he lets me get hit by a car, makes me watch Mom's keepsake get left to a stray, and even throws me into jail with his own hands.

By the time I'm shattered and boarding a flight to Velport to marry someone else, Daniel is tearing Belcaster apart just to find me.

To outsiders, I was the bright and brazen heiress of the Seymours. Daniel Falkner was Belcaster's big shot—disciplined, aloof, almost ascetic.

Night after night, he took my waist in his hands and drove into me until my legs went weak, calling me "princess", again and again.

He didn't know I'd be marrying someone else in just two weeks.

The sheet was still damp. As I lay catching my breath, Daniel was already up, pulling on his clothes.

I turned onto my side and watched him button his shirt. "You're not staying tonight?"

"I have a meeting at the office. Be sweet," he said without looking back.

There it was again.

I sat up. The sheet slipped off me.

His hands stilled for a heartbeat, then resumed at his tie.

"Daniel."

"Yeah?"

"Nothing."

He turned, brushed a kiss across my forehead, and murmured, "I'm leaving."

When the door clicked shut, I reached for my phone and punched in a number I knew by heart.

"Dad, I'll go through with the arranged marriage. I'll marry the dying Gaskell heir in Velport in two weeks, but I have one condition."

His voice lifted at once. "Great! Name it. Whatever it is, I'll grant it!"

"We'll speak in person."

After I ended the call, Daniel's spare tablet on the nightstand lit, the screen flashing a new message from Serena Jarman.

"Danny, thanks for coming with me to the hospital today. The doctor says I'm doing better. It's all because you've been taking such good care of me. Let's catch a movie tomorrow, like old times."

A kiss emoji capped it off.

I stared at the text, my fingers shaking. Daniel had never once gone with me to the hospital, not even when I broke a rib at riding practice.

I threw on my clothes and slipped out, tailing his car. He stepped out in front of one of the city's finest restaurants.

From a distance, I watched him walk to Serena in her white dress. She looked frailer than in the photos.

He lifted a hand to smooth her hair, so gentle it seemed she might splinter at his touch. I'd only ever seen that tenderness on his face in bed.

It was three years ago when Dad handed me to Daniel. One glance at that austere, handsome