King of Greed

My heart kicked against my ribcage. She was at the end of the corridor. Soon, she’d be lost in the crowd, and who knew if we
would see each other again? Granted, Thayer was a small campus and I had her number, but instinct told me I was letting something special slip through my fingers if I didn’t stop her right fucking now.

She was almost out of sight.

Panic spurred me into action. I broke into a flat-out run and caught up with her right as she turned the corner. “Wait! Alessandra.”

She stopped, her brow knitting with confusion at my flushed face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I mean…” Just spit it out. “When are you heading home for the holidays?” Classes didn’t officially end until next week, but a lot of students went home early if they didn’t have mandatory in-person exams.

Her puzzlement visibly mounted. “Tuesday. Why?”

“I was wondering…that is…” Fuck. I sounded like an inexperienced schoolboy asking his crush out for the first time. What was wrong with me? “Do you want to grab dinner on Saturday? Just the two of us.”

SEEING ALESSANDRA AND NOT BEING ABLE TO HOLD her was a special kind of torture. It’d been two days, thirteen hours, and thirty-three minutes since our dinner together, and I had spent every waking moment since replaying it. She was right next door, but I was afraid that if I didn’t etch her into my mind deeply enough, she would slip away like grains of sand through my fingers

That’s all I ask. A chance for us to talk and get to know each other as we are now. I want to know what makes you laugh, what makes you cry, what your dreams look like when you sleep and what keeps you up when you can’t. I’ll spend however many lifetimes I need to rediscover those parts of you, because you’re it for me. In every iteration of every life. Things may have changed since we got married, but you and me? We were always meant for forever

“You shouldn’t be here.” A strange mix of fatigue and adrenaline coursed through my veins. “This isn’t healthy for either of us. We just got divorced. We can’t move on if you insist on following me everywhere.”

Dominic’s eyes flickered beneath the lights. “That’s the thing,” he said softly. “There is no moving on. Not for me.”

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?

“Loving you was never the problem!” She finally met my eyes, her expression equal parts infuriated and anguished. “I’ve loved you for eleven years, Dom. I loved you so much I lost myself. Everything I did, everything I gave up and endured was for you. The late nights, the missed dates, the canceled trips. I believed in you and wanted you to succeed, not because I cared about the money, but because you did. I thought one day, it would be enough, and you would be happy with what we had. But you’ll never be happy, and I’ll never be enough.”

A bitter laugh mixed with her sob. “Do you know that there were times when I wished you had a mistress? At least then, I would have something concrete to fight. But I can’t fight what I can’t see, so I went to sleep every night in an empty bed, and I woke up every morning to an empty house. I faked my smiles for so long I couldn’t remember what a real one felt like, and I hate myself because despite all that, I couldn’t let go of what we once had.” Alessandra’s voice broke. “You’re right. I do still love you. A part of me always will. But you’re not the person I fell in love with anymore, and all this time that I’ve spent trying to pretend you are? It’s killing me.”

“You touch a single strand of hair on her head,”
I said softly. “And there won’t be a place on earth where I won’t hunt you down and kill you so slowly you’ll be begging for death.”

The brokenness of the last word cleaved my heart in half. The picture she painted was a tribute to simpler times, and while I never wanted to be the powerless, penniless boy I’d been when we’d first met again, I did want to be the man she fell in love with.

I wanted her to smile at me the way she used to.

I wanted her by my side, happy and laughing and whole.

I wanted us back, even if it meant stripping away parts of the person I’d worked so hard to build.

I would stalk you if it meant you’d talk to me again.”

“How romantic.”

“I’m past romantic, Alessandra. I’m desperate.”

In any other situation, I would’ve balked at the thought of losing half my fortune, but all I could think about was how badly I wanted to kiss her. A real kiss, not like the perfunctory ones I usually gave her when I came home because I’d been too tired from work.

The regret of a thousand missed opportunities trickled through my veins.