King of Greed (Kings of Sin, #3)

by Ana Huang

To knowing your worth and never settling for less than you deserve.

I blinked back an embarrassing sting of tears. So what if my husband felt like a stranger? I felt like a stranger to myself sometimes when I looked in the mirror.

Get it together.

It wasn’t fancy, but it was intimate and casual, and it was supposed to be a trip for us. As our relationship frayed further every day, I’d hoped it would bring us closer again. Make us fall in love the way we had a lifetime ago.

But I realized that was impossible because neither of us was the same person we used to be. Dominic wasn’t the boy who gave himself a hundred paper cuts making origami versions of my favorite flowers for my birthday, and I wasn’t the girl who floated through life with stars and dreams in her eyes.

“I don’t have the money to buy you all the flowers you deserve yet,” he said, sounding so solemn and formal I couldn’t help but smile at the contrast between his tone and the jar of colorful p...

I looked the same as I always did, but I hardly recognized myself. It was like seeing a stranger wear my face.

Where was the girl who’d pushed back against her mother’s modeling dreams for her and insisted on going to college instead? Who’d lived life with unapologetic joy and unbridled optimism, and who’d once dumped a boy for forgetting her birthday? That girl would’ve never sat around waiting for a man. She’d had goals and dreams, but somewhere along the way, they’d fallen by the wayside, consumed by the gravity of her husband’s ambition.

I couldn’t spend the rest of my days going through the motions and pretending to be happy. I had to take back control of my life—even if it meant destroying the one I currently had.

“I don’t care about the fancy penthouse or clothes or jet. I would rather have a husband. A real one, not one just in name.”

No matter how much I tried to explain, he didn’t get why I was upset. It wasn’t about physical, tangible things like flights and dinner reservations. It was about a fundamental disconnect in our values and what we deemed important for a good relationship. I believed in quality time and conversation; he believed money could fix everything.

Even if it killed me, even if the easiest thing was to fall into his arms and sink into the memory of what we used to be, I had to go through with it. I was already a shell of myself. If I didn’t get out while I could, I’d dissolve into dust, nothing more than a collection of lost time and unrealized dreams.

“You know I would choose you.” “That’s the thing. I don’t.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “Because you haven’t chosen me. Not in a very, very long time.”

“You honestly think we’ll be happier if we divorce? That I’ll be happier without you? This is us.” The word ripped from my throat, raw and loaded with emotion. “Você e eu. Para sempre.” You and me. Forever.

The thought of living without her was incomprehensible, like asking a heart to stop beating or the stars to give up the night. “I promise.” We had to. Maybe I haven’t expressed it as much as I should have, but Alessandra was an indelible part of me. She had been since the moment I laid eyes on her eleven years ago, though I hadn’t known it at the time. Without her, there was no me.

Thayer was filled with beautiful girls, but there was beautiful, and there was her.

None of my friends seemed surprised by my decision to leave him, which said all there was to say about how other people perceived our relationship.

“Mrs. Davenport.” The words were lethal in their quietness. “As in my wife. If she wants to see me, she sees me. Don’t ever prevent her from doing so again or the only part of a New York office you’ll see is the outside when I throw you out. Understand?”

“Sleep or not, you’re always beautiful.” My chest clenched. If only he was this attentive when our relationship wasn’t on the brink of ruin.

Learning foreign languages didn’t come easily for him, but the fact that he’d done it anyway because he wanted to make a good impression on my family… The ache deepened. God, I adored this man. “Maybe, but I wanted to.” Dominic’s face softened. “Faria qualquer coisa por você.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Dante said. “Let’s stop beating around the bush. You’re the problem, Dom. Even someone who’s met you both once can tell you barely paid attention to Alessandra when she was around. How many times have you stayed at the event while she went home because she didn’t feel well? How many dinners did you take with clients instead of with her?”

“This is just one time. It won’t happen again.” Except it had. Just one time turned into two, then three, until we entered a new normal. I’d assumed she was okay with it because she rarely expressed otherwise except for that one time with the counseling. But the way she got quieter and quieter over the years, the way she left events early when she wasn’t hosting them and utter lack of surprise when I canceled plans…

“The question is, are you willing to do it?”

“Ask me again on another day, and my answer might be different. I would stalk you if it meant you’d talk to me again.” “How romantic.” “I’m past romantic, Alessandra. I’m desperate.”

Alessandra wasn’t the type who enjoyed hurting people, and her defensiveness was a testament to how much I’d hurt her. Out of everything, that knowledge cut the deepest.

“You can go on as many dates as you want, amor,” Dominic said softly. “But no one will love you like I do. Você e eu. Não tem comparação.”

How had I ever willingly spent so many hours away from her when I would give up my fucking kidney for a moment alone with her again? Why had I been more afraid of losing everything else instead of losing her?

I was used to being the support instead of the star in my own life.