Chapter Five

Chapter 5

The double oak doors burst open with a loud boom, startling James from the report on his desk. Sarah stormed into his private office, eyes blazing with fury, her chest heaving beneath her thin blouse.

"Sarah?" He stood up abruptly, shocked and remorseful. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't play dumb with me!" she spat, throwing a crumpled newspaper at his head.

James jerked back just in time as the projectile sailed past, scattering papers. The bold headline screamed at him: DYNASTIES MERGE: REYNOLDS HEIR TO WED MONTGOMERY PRINCESS.

Ice flooded his veins as he met Sarah's devastated glare. "How...how did you find out?"

"How did I find out?" She let out a biting laugh that cut him deeply. "You mean aside from the press release announcing to the world that my beloved fiancé is getting himself to another woman? The woman he swore to love and cherish until death?"

Her laugh turned into a strangled, anguished sound as betraying tears spilled down her cheeks. "Damn you, James! Damn you for making me believe this ring actually meant something!" She twisted the diamond ring on her finger as if to rip it off. "Was I just some fling to you, the bastard's bit of fun while you carried on with your deceit?"

"No!" He rounded the desk towards her in three long strides, aching to hold her yet unworthy. "Sarah, please, let me explain…”

Her palms struck his chest in a vicious shove, pushing him back a step. "Explain what? That you've been lying straight to my face for God knows how long? That you probably never cared about the future we planned together?"

"That's not true!" Horror and anger warred within him. How could she think such a thing after all they'd shared?

"Were you just stringing me along?" she persisted furiously. "Feeding me pretty lies about a happily ever after until your inheritance depended on casting me aside? Was that the game all along? Or have I just been too blind to realize money and power were always your one true love?"

Her voice cracked, yet she refused to give in to devastation in her eyes. "Or have I simply been too blind to realize that money and power were always your one, true mistress? I give you my all James, we had dreams we planned together was that all but a lie to you."

That stopped him short, puncturing his rising outrage more swiftly than a spear. Her accusations were heinous, yes, but tinged with the desperation of someone grasping at straws to explain senseless cruelty.

And why shouldn't she think the worst of him, after the parade of lies and humiliations?

James's shoulders slumped wearily. He sank into the chair opposite, raking a hand through his disheveled hair as he struggled to gather his whirling thoughts.

"You're right," he started hoarsely, meeting her gaze. "I haven't been fully honest with you these past weeks. But I swear on every ounce of love I have, it was never out of malice or deception."

Sarah stiffened, regarding him through a sheen of tears and smudged makeup. But she didn't flee as he expected. She didn't hurl more accusations.

“I never for once lied to you, I carried you along with the happenings in this company, we are in dire need of money and if nothing is done, I will end up in the street. I know you don’t want that for us. This is why this merger has to happen. I promise it will only be for a short time, this is for my family legacy,” James explained.

"So that's it, then?" she whispered, hugging herself as if shielding from trauma. "You're going through with this...sham marriage all to appease your father and uphold 'the family legacy?'"

A humorless puff of breath escaped her parted lips as she squeezed her eyes shut, hanging on by a thread. "My God, James...how could you let him reduce our love to such a hollow, sacrificial thing?"

Remorse knifed through him so keenly he could scarcely breathe. Striding towards her, he cradled her beloved face in his palms, forcing Sarah to meet his urgent gaze.

"Listen to me," he commanded in a low, gravelly tone edged with desperation. "You're more than just a love or legacy to me, Sarah. You're my heart, my reason for living. The very core of my being."  

His thumbs traced her delicate cheekbones, catching the shining tears that slipped free, branding their glistening tracks into his soul.

"Nothing , not my family's estate or duty or even this cruel, calculated union , nothing will ever change how I feel about you," he swore hoarsely. "You are everything to me. My forever, no matter what obstacles fate puts in our way."

Sarah's resolve wavered, melting beneath the searing honesty blazing in his eyes. With a hitching sob, she slid her arms around his neck and buried her face against his throat. He enveloped her pliant form without hesitation, cradling her like the most precious treasure.

"Don't do this to me, James," she gasped against his neck. "Don't ask me to surrender the only stability I've known while you chase duty, legacy, and all those empty, heartless things."

Her slender frame trembled with the force of her desolation. "You're asking me to give up part of my very soul! How can any woman withstand such an ordeal?"

James pressed his brow to her crown, shredded inside by the anguish engulfing the woman he cherished above all others. How many more times must he witness her suffering before they found their way back?

How many more trials must they endure before escaping this fresh hell unscathed?

Gathering an iron resolve, he tilted her face up and slanted his mouth over hers in a fevered, desperate kiss. Sarah melted into the aching embrace, reciprocating ardently even as he tasted the salt of her tears on his lips and tongue.

When the fury of their kiss ebbed, James peppered frantic, soothing kisses over her damp cheeks and down the column of her neck before burying his face against the fragrant hollow beneath her ear.

"Give me one year, my love," he pled in a harsh, guttural murmur. "One year to set things right by any means necessary."

His palm cradled the back of her head, fingers tunneling through her thick tresses. "Then I'll rid myself of this shackled existence and any other obstacle keeping me from your side permanently."

At last, she drew back enough to gaze up at him, their mingled breaths intermingling. Her eyes shimmered with heart-rending vulnerability, pleading for him to assuage her every doubt.

Finally, she nodded, swallowing hard.

"One year. And then we run far away from all this madness...together?"