Empire of Hate (Empire, #3)

by Rina Kent

“You’re the only woman I wanted with a desperation that bordered on both pleasure and pain. The only woman who drives me fucking insane but I still can’t look away from. My fixation with you made me hate all blondes because they reminded me of you. Brunettes aren’t my type, Peaches. You are. And you know what, your condition about exclusivity is bloody useless. Ever since you came back into my life, I haven’t been able to see another woman, let alone fuck her. It’s you. Only you.”

“You’re the first one who made me enjoy sex again after what happened.”

“Tell me you’re mine, Nicole,” he groans against my lips. “I’m yours.” The words are the easiest I’ve ever said. “Only mine?” “Only yours.”

If I give him time, he’ll come back to me, right? He’ll heal. I’ll heal and he’ll love me.

That’s the exact thought I had eleven years ago. That with time, he’ll come to me. But it was never the case. If anything, it ended with a tragedy.

He’s actually taking my side over Astrid’s. His best friend Astrid. The Astrid who always came before me. Whom he befriended upon minutes of meeting her while he glared at me for years.

“I followed her and kicked out Chris because the bloody thought of him or anyone else touching her put me in a murderous mood worse than a serial killer’s. Because she’d been driving me fucking crazy for years and right then, I could pretend it was the drugs that made me do it. And that night? The night you had an accident and nearly died was the happiest night of my fucking life up until that point. Up until I abandoned her in the middle of the fire and found you drowning in your own blood. So she didn’t rape me, Astrid. She didn’t even come after me. I followed her, kicked out the lowlife who was there, and I fucked her until I lost count because I wanted her since I knew what wanting someone fucking means.”

A big, warm hand grabs mine that I’ve been hiding with the other one between my thighs. I stare at Daniel as he interlinks his fingers with mine, keeping his attention on the road.

If he’s with me, I can do this.

“Uncle Aiden says Mummy and Daddy like making babies.” “Your uncle Aiden is right.” “Your uncle Aiden is a twat, Landon,”

“Uncle Aiden isn’t a twat. He only says the truth. Besides”—Landon furrows his brow—“you made Glyndon, who’s spoiled and unnecessary.” “I told you to not call your sister unnecessary, Lan,” Astrid says in a teacher’s voice. “But she is.” “Go to your room and reflect on that.” She pulls him from Daniel’s arm and puts him to his feet. Landon shakes his head and stalks away with his hands linked behind his back like an old man, grumbling, “She’s still unnecessary.”

Aiden was the one who exhibited destructive energy in everything he did. He was silent, broody, and with clear sociopathic tendencies. Still is, from the rumors I read online. His wife and son might have tamed him a bit, but something tells me Aiden King will never change.

“Was she always a drama queen or is this a new habit, or maybe you fucking impregnated her again so she’s becoming emotional?” Daniel whispers to Levi. “Call my wife a drama queen again and I’ll hit you on the head hard enough to knock out your few functioning neurons,”

“Why aren’t you eating, Bug?” Astrid stares between him and his full plate. “I only eat Nicole’s cooking nowadays.” Her eyes flash to me. “You cook?” I clear my throat. “Yeah.” “And her food is the best thing you won’t have the luxury to eat.”

I would go through a thousand awkward meals if he’s right by my side.

“He wanted to see you.” Why? Just so he’d blame me? Kick me while I’m down as she likes to do? I can take that from her but not from him. Not from the father figure who taught me how to ride my first bike and put a plaster on my knees when I fell down. Only so I would realize I was only a substitute for his dear Astrid. A silver medal. A second choice.

it wasn’t the imprisonment or cancer that ate her alive, Nicole. It was the fact that you turned your back on her.”

“She hurt you when you only took care of us,” I continue in a broken voice. “She made me lose you for good.”

“You never lost me, Nicole. The day I let you walk out of my house is one of the worst regrets of my life.”

“It took losing you to realize you’re my daughter as much as Astrid is.” “Uncle…” “You can call me Papa or Dad, as Astrid does, whenever you’re ready.”

“Welcome back home.”

“And you’re heading to the old hag category faster than an express train.” Searing pain explodes in my leg when Levi kicks me under the table. “No talking to my wife that way unless you want your head hanging on her art studio’s entrance.” “Glad to see you’re still a crazy motherfucker, Captain. Let’s hope the spawns don’t inherit that.” Levi shares a look with his wife. “Did this cunt just call our children spawns, Princess?” “He’s jealous.” She glides her fingers through his hair.

Gloomy silence falls over us as we both think of all the ways we could’ve stopped it but didn’t. Nicole must’ve felt so fucking lonely with no one to turn to.

“But hey, I’m glad you’re changing for the better, even if she’s the reason behind it.” “She’s not the reason behind anything.” “Keep telling yourself that, Bug.” Astrid laughs and I want to kick her and make her take back what she said. Because, fuck no, I’m not changing because of Nicole. Right?

I’m not ashamed to admit that I want this woman with the desperation of a sex addict, an incubus, and a nymph combined. It’s borderline obsession at this point.

But what I love more is how much she likes the way I touch her, how she doesn’t escape in her head anymore and meets me stroke for stroke. It’s as if she…trusts me.

I would sell both my kidneys in a buy-one-get-one-free package if that means I’ll see her laugh more.

She smiles and I want to trap that smile in my chest. Better yet, I wish I was there all these years she’s been struggling on her own.

I tell her to unlock the phone, then change the name to Daniel surrounded by two hearts. Then I take a selfie while I kiss her lips and put it as the designated picture.

“Then where’s your home, Daniel?” Right in front of me.

Like I’m seriously considering seeing someone about my damn unhealthy tendencies when it comes to her. The blonde who made me hate all blondes. The woman who broke my heart and is slowly mending it back together again.

I might have an obsession with kissing Nicole. I like to think I’m a healthy man without serial creeper tendencies, but deep in my mind, I know I’d kiss her any chance I get for all the times I couldn’t.

“The right thing? Since when are you a saint, Nicole? You like using people, so let’s hear it. What did you intend to gain from this? My mother’s favor? My brother’s attention? Did you put all that effort into the food so that he’d decide to keep you as his warm hole?”

I always make mistakes when it comes to you and it’s time I learn to not make them anymore.”

“I saw you the day you went into a vintage shop and asked the old man for a custom-made necklace. You even gave him a picture of me so the color would match my eyes. That day was one of the happiest in my life. And when my birthday rolled around, I opened your present first. You said, ‘It’s called a box of secrets and you’re the only one who can get access to it due to that key necklace.’ But before I could say anything, you told me that Aunt Nora picked it out and then you left the party.

“You always lifted me up just to bring me down harder than before. You touched me just to stop touching me. You kissed me only to never do it again. Did you know that your smiles disappeared whenever you looked at me? That you always looked in the other direction? You ignored me to the point that I wondered if I was invisible. But I’m not, Daniel. I’m right here, I was always right in front of you, looking at you, watching you, being so unhealthily obsessed with you, it ruined me.

“I stepped on my pride to love you. I crushed my bleeding heart, then gave it to you. All I wanted was for you to see me, to not make me invisible. All I wished for was a tiny piece of your heart, a sliver of your attention, but you ne...

Because the only thing I recall about you from back then is your bitchy, entitled fucking self, Nicole. You were just a fuck but you went ahead and made it into some love story. Hopeless romanticism does suit you since you’re so fucking naïve.”

“You’ll never see me, will you? No matter how much I look at you, give you, or be there for you, I’ll only ever be someone you despise to want. Someone who’s meant to only ever be invisible.”

That’s when I see what we are. I’ve always been the upper half of an hourglass while he was the bottom. Sooner or later, he was meant to empty me until nothing was left.

“I’m done with you. I’m done with your cowardice, with my unrequited feelings. I’m done, Daniel. So please, let me go. Please let me be free. Let me breathe air where you don’t exist.”

The world splinters to pieces around me as I fall to the floor and cry the hardest I ever did. I don’t grieve us, not when we didn’t even exist. I finally grieve myself.

Being with Daniel isn’t only an experience, but a bloody battle with more losses and casualties. And that’s all I’m suffering from right now.

I’m sorry you loved me. Daniel

she existed in another world than mine, like a queen. You can look at her on her throne, you can reach close, but you can never touch her. She was also a bitch, not only to me but to everyone. She wore her mean girl persona as a crown and made sure everyone saw her adjusting it over those blonde locks.

I stood right in front of the room as she cried, stopping myself from going in there and wrapping her in my arms. I couldn’t. I didn’t have the right to. Not when I’m the one who ruined her life.

The first thing I see are pictures. Of her birthdays and mine that our mothers forced us to attend. From our eighth birthday until our fifteenth—since then, they couldn’t force us to do anything. In every single group picture of my birthdays, she was always looking at me. All eight pictures of them.

The last time she consumed a whole peach was the day she had that strong allergic reaction. So this must be from back then. Fuck. She kept it for twenty-one years. Underneath it, there’s a lollipop wrapper. I remember this one. Peach flavor with the brand design that goes back to over seventeen years ago. The first lollipop she left in my bag. Then there’s a pen. One she lent me once. A few rings that I gave her for her birthdays because I once heard her telling a friend she likes the special edition ones.

Daniel has been following you like a lost puppy ever since we were kids. He’d ask Mother to lie and say she got you the birthday gifts and he never asks Mother for anything. And he’s now leaving you a fortune that will make your grandchildren live like kings, not to mention that he beat up the scum who assaulted you and cut off his dick like a noodle, then made him drop the custody case for your brother. So please enlighten me, which part in that sounds like he never reciprocated?”

“Why do you hate to see me cry, take revenge against Christopher for me, leave me your mansion and your money, but still refuse to be with me? Is it so hard to love me?”