Chapter 65 Chapter 65
LIANA'S POV
The knock was gentler than I had expected, but it thumped in my chest. I opened the door gradually, having no notion of what I would find on the other side, and there he stood. Stanley. His hands jammed into his coat pockets, his eyes shadowed by something deeper than mere night.
"Hey," he whispered.
"Come in," I whispered back, stepping aside.
He came in, not as a friend caller, but as a man coming into a confession booth, prepared to abandon a sin. I shut the door behind us, the snap of the lock final.
"Want wine?"
"No. It won't take long."
I blinked. "Okay. So what's going on here, Stanley? You said you couldn't tell me that on the phone and you sounded tense."
He nodded slowly and assessed my living room, a vacant stare slipping over the unfilled wine glass and silky throw blanket I'd discarded on the couch.
He didn't sit. "You're going to hate me for this," he said at last, his gaze cast downward. "But you deserve the truth."
I stared at him, my heart pounding.
"Stanley, what is it? You're beginning to scare me."
He exhaled, a deep, shuddering one, and then looked at me like a man who is going to burn a bridge looks at another human being.
"I'm Dominic's half-brother."
My world began to spin. I didn't understand. I just blinked and blinked at him, as if maybe I had misunderstood or maybe he had said something different and my mind had redefined what he'd said.
"What?"
"My father… our father, he had another family. Dominic never acknowledged me. Never. To him, I was not there. But I grew up watching and witnessing as he took the name, the money, the empire."
My hands went cold. Stanley went on. "He knew I was there, and yet he made sure that I was nothing. My mother suffered. I saw her go through so much while he sat on the throne until eventualy … Eventually she passed."
His voice shattered with the pain of decades buried long. "When I heard that you were coming back, I thought to make an impression. So yes, I came into your world for one reason, to bring down Dominic Smith."
I flinched. It was as if someone had punched me straight through the chest. "You used me?."
He raised his hands. "Wait Liana, it wasn't exactly…"
"You used me to get to him?"
"At first. Yes. I'm not denying it. I used you as a doorway. You had so much on him, I just needed to give you the push. I needed something to have over him and you presented me with the opportunity."
My stomach dropped like an elevator losing its cable. My legs weakened. "Oh my God," I panted. “So you did use me.”
He moved closer. "But it changed. I promise you, it changed. I didn't mean to…"
I cut him off, trembling. "To what? Fall in love with me?" I guffawed. A bitter, frantic laugh. "Do you hear yourself? You manipulated me. You brought yourself under the canopy of concern, of friendship, of trust. God, Stanley. How could you?"
He was wrecked. "Because somewhere, you stopped being a strategy and became the only one who saw me. Who actually saw me."
I shook my head, stepping back away from him. "Don't. Don't do that. That is the most manipulative thing anyone ever said to me."
"It's not manipulation, it's the truth!"
"No," I barked, my voice rising. "You're just like him. You take and twist and play with love as long as it's in your favour."
His features tightened. "I am nothing like Dominic. I never hurt you. I never disrespected you. Everything that happened between us after those initial talks? It was real. You were real. You were everything I ever wanted."
"Why didn’t you tell me the truth?" Why wait so long?"
He breathed out. "Because I was afraid. Afraid you'd see the worst of me. Afraid you'd look at me the way you're looking at me now."
"Well, congratulations. Fear accomplished."
We stood there, my heart pounding in my ears.
And as if that was not enough, he decided "But we can still get this done together. You want him out of the picture, so do I. We're stronger together. Let's get this done… for both our good and for our…."
"Shut up! Our what? Love? There is no love here Stanley, Just a host and a prey. Crazy how the host is the victim. You want me to collaborate with you now? After all of this?"
"Yes," he answered curtly. "Because no one understands how awful he is like you and me."
I took a deep breath, looked in his eyes and spoke.
"Get out."
He blinked. "What?"
"GET OUT"
"Liana, don't do this…"
"You actually believe that I'd join forces with a liar? I am sorry Dominic did whatever he did to you but you think I will join forces with someone who sat across from me at dinner, took my hand, kissed my forehead, and all the time was balancing my worth in his small time revenge?"
His voice broke. "The day I said I loved you, I wasn't passing a petty comment."
There were tears burning in my eyes. "Love that begins in lies is still a lie, Stanley. And it will die as that."
He tried to move towards me but I took a step backwards. "Don't... One more step and I guarantee you, I will scream this whole building awake."
He froze. "If you don't leave right now, I'll call security and have you escorted out for trespassing."
He glanced at my face, his eyes glassy, his lower lip shaking in shock, but he knew. He knew I meant every word.
He backed away slowly. I opened the door and threw it open. Cold air rushed in. "Don't come back. Don't call. Don't text me, infact, lose my number. You made your choice. Live with it."
He stared at me for a moment longer, like he was waiting for me to take back my words, but I didn't.
Without another word, he walked out.
I shut the door behind him. Locked it. I leaned in, breathing against it. And I went down to the ground and cried how did I let myself be broken by two brothers? How didn't I ever suspect Stanley? I cried like I hadn't in months. Because I had been wrong. Because I had believed again. Because no matter how much strength and discipline I displayed today… there was still a part of me that needed to be loved.
And now? All I felt was hatred.