Chapter 51: My Dark Prince: Chapter 50

There was a major chance I wouldn’t make it out of dinner alive.

Not if my fiancée had anything to do with it.

I didn’t know what Briar had in store for me, but I didn’t believe she’d broken the coffee machine by accident (she wasn’t clumsy) or that she spontaneously decided to blue-ball me by masturbating as I showered and inventing bikini yoga (which the internet confirmed was, unfortunately, not a real thing).

She was up to something.

Nothing I could do about it but wait until the guillotine fell. If I were lucky, it would lob off my head and put an end to this miserable existence. Briar and Seb would get the happy ending they deserved, and Mom and Dad could finally be free of our Tuesday dinners with their only son that bothered to show up.

With the feast preparations well under way, I bodied past my staff, sauntering through the vast hallways of my mansion, mainly to double-check that Briar hadn’t set anything on fire in the twenty minutes it had taken to feed Al Capony and Usain Colt.

Once I confirmed the absence of flames, I settled in front of a window overlooking the lake. With my hands linked behind my back, I studied Sebastian’s empty rowing boat. He wouldn’t be able to use it tonight. Not with the catering company’s table set-up by the lake. They’d prepared a waterside eight-coarse meal, mostly vegetarian to accommodate Briar, though Hettie made some additions.

Midnight rows remained my brother’s sole outlet. The only time he felt comfortable venturing out of his wing to get some fresh air. A stab of guilt sliced through my chest. I shook my head and crept to his wing, peering left and right to ensure Briar couldn’t see me.

The last thing I needed was for her to unearth my reclusive, foul-mouthed, bitter-at-the-universe brother living there. To witness how I’d turned Sebastian von Bismarck, one of the most sought-after men in the world, into a shadow of himself.

I had the opposite of the Midas Touch. I turned everything I touched into shit. Ruined everything. Unfailingly. Including my relationships with Sebastian, Briar, and my parents.

The dogs chased me as I waded into Sebastian’s territory.

Huh. Weird. They’d never ventured into this side of the house before.

I opened the two baby gates, careful to close them quietly to avoid drawing Briar’s attention. Even with the twenty-thousand-or-so square feet, I couldn’t be too careful.

Seb didn’t glance up when I waltzed straight into his gym. I knew I’d find him there. Glued to the rowing machine – always rowing – in only a pair of black gym shorts. His body glistened with sweat, every inch covered in hard-earned muscles.

I refused to believe he was off the market because of his face. As if faces mattered to women. If they did, Pete Davidson would still be a virgin.

“If it isn’t brother dearest.” Sebastian pulled the handle and stretched all the way back before sliding in, his movements smooth and controlled. “To what do I owe this visit?”

Normally, I texted him before I came. He needed ample preparation time to face me. The only human he ever agreed to see face-to-face.

We shared exactly one set appointment a week, where we binge-watched seven days’ worth of Days of Our Lives episodes in complete silence and parted ways like it had never happened.

About every other week, I managed to convince Seb to spend an extra evening with me. We’d work out outside, in the remote woods beyond the property, but only late at night. Or share a meal I brought from Mom’s.

But I never, ever spontaneously checked on him.

I didn’t even know what possessed my feet to bring me here.

Maybe I wanted to gush about Briar, but it would only rub life in his face. Or maybe I hoped he’d finally free me of the promise he’d torn out of me after I’d ruined his life. Either way, neither would happen.

I knew it. And still …

I propped a shoulder on his doorframe, tucking my hands into my front pockets. “There’s a dinner party outside tonight. I just wanted to let you know.”

His back trembled with a dry chuckle. “Making sure the monster doesn’t wander out of its cage to scare your guests?”

I fucking loathed that he thought of himself as a monster. That when he glared into a mirror, he saw the same face I saw and couldn’t see someone worth loving.

“You know damn well there is nothing I want more than to see you there, having dinner with us, socializing again.” I was so quiet, I doubted he could hear me.

“Aw. Well, aren’t you a darling.”

A muscle jumped in my jaw. I swallowed a growl of frustration. “I just want you to be happy.”

“Should’ve thought about that before you fucked up my face, I’m afraid.”

He snapped the handle back in its place and shot up, grabbing a small towel from the railing and wiping his face and hair. He slam-dunked it into a laundry basket, picked up the shaker bottle with his amino acids, and ambled over to me.

Sebastian’s face never healed. Not really.

It wasn’t easy to admit, but it was the truth. I’d rendered it completely changed, with missing parts and chunks of stitched-together skin.

“As I said, thanks for the heads up.” Sebastian met my gaze head-on, his eyes – blue like the ocean – staring back at me. “Anything else?”

“Come to the plastic surgeon with me.” The desperate plea in my voice pissed me off. I shouldn’t beg him for this. “Let’s explore our opti—”

“I am entirely disinterested in putting lipstick on a pig.” His metallic laughter echoed down the corridor. “Nothing will make me look like I once did. I want my old face back. I want my old life back. If it’s scraps or nothing, I choose nothing at all.”

“Why are you so stubborn?” I ground out, frustrated.

“Why are you so stupid?”

I shook my head. “Mom should’ve let you drip down her leg.”

That made him snort. “You’re a hopeless romantic to assume Dad is open to anything other than missionary-style for the purpose of reproduction.”

His shoulder bumped into mine as he pushed out the door, storming over to his room.

I followed him. “Nobody wants to be lonely.”

“No?” He charged into his en-suite bathroom, where he flicked on the faucet to his bathtub. Water gushed inside. “Then, how come you’re still alone?”

A dark grin twisted his cheeks. He knew exactly why I was alone. He knew what I wanted – and that he was the reason I’d lost it. Neither of us would admit it. After I’d made the promise, we’d never spoken about it again.

“I’m alone, not lonely.” I waved my arm toward the lake, where the caterers had probably already finished setting up my dinner with the guys. “I see our parents almost every week—”

“And hate every minute of it.”

“I have friends—”

“Workout buddies who have their own families and social circles.”

Sebastian never missed a chance to remind me that Rom and Zach shared a closer bond with each other than I did with either of them. I was the third wheel. The one who invited himself to their party of two when I discovered most people were insufferable. By then, they’d known each other for five years, growing up next door to one another.

And after Seb’s accident …

Well, I didn’t want to get too close to anyone else.

“Hookups,” I pointed out, desperate. “I have hookups. I enjoy one-night stands.”

Okay. One-night stand. Singular. Just to try it out. Spoiler alert: it sucked. I gave up after. The truth was, I liked to make fun of Zach for being a virgin, but he probably had fifty times more sex in his short marriage than I had my entire life.

“And I enjoy lengthy walks in hell with my best buddies Dahmer and Bundy.” Sebastian snorted, snatching a small bottle of bath salts off the counter. “I’m not buying what you’re selling, Oliver. You’re as miserable and lonely as I am. You’re just better at pretending otherwise.”

You asked me to be, I wanted to scream.

Instead, I swallowed my frustration, burying it beside my resentment.

He emptied the salt into the water. His body ached all the fucking time. He used industrial amounts of salts, oils, and multivitamins to try to ease the pain I squared my shoulders. “At least I don’t hide from the world.”

He tipped his head back and released a bitter laugh. “Try living in my body for one minute and you will, too.”

That shut me up.

I knew he was right. I just didn’t want him to be.

Sebastian sat on the edge of the bathtub, watching the salts fizzle inside the water, turning milky. “Anything else, big bro?”

“Actually, yes. I need advice.”

“Skyn ultra-thin, though Trojan Magnum are okay, too.”

I ignored his joke. “Briar is being a hellion. I don’t know what’s wrong with her—”

“Have you tried unplugging her, rebooting, then plugging her in again, but this time without ruining her life?”

My teeth slammed together. I tried to keep my voice neutral. “As I said, she’s been rebellious these past couple days. She might try to venture into your wing.”

“Duly noted. I’ll fight her anytime and anyplace she wants.”

“You will not touch one hair on her head,” I countered, my tone coming out harsher and rougher than I intended.

That made Seb look up from the water. “Excuse me?”

“You cannot touch her if she comes here. Or make a scene. If you even make her feel slightly uncomfortable—”

“Then what?” He stood up. Seb lived to make me feel small, guilty, and insignificant. “What will you do, then? I’m your little brother whose life you ruined. You wouldn’t dare retaliate against me.”

Maybe it was the constant petty tricks Briar inflicted on me. Maybe it was the decade-plus of sleepless nights. Maybe it was the tension from having the hottest woman on the planet rub herself up and down on me, twenty-four seven.

But for the first time since I ruined Seb’s life, I snapped.

I surged forward, standing toe-to-toe with him, getting in his face. Our noses nearly touched. Heavy breaths ripped past my lips. I didn’t even know why. Why I finally decided to slice through the bullshit.

“I don’t care what I did to you almost two fucking decades ago, Sebastian.” I stabbed a finger into his chest. “It was a mistake, and I pay for it every day. Dearly. I said my sorrys. I say them all the time. But I am telling you now, if you hurt this woman, I am going to destroy you and not leave anything behind for anyone else to tarnish. You understand?”

His blue eyes shimmered. I wondered if he’d cry. I wondered if he even could. I’d never seen Sebastian cry. Not since he was five. Not even after what I’d done to him.

“If you care about her so much, why did you agree to leave her?”

Because of you, I wanted to scream. Because I was too busy trying to make things better for you. Trying to fix you. I couldn’t save both of you, so I chose you.

I remembered the moment I’d promised Sebastian that I’d stay away from Briar.

He sat in the hospital bed as I held a mirror up, watching him unravel the bandages around his face. The second he saw himself, he vomited. On the mirror. On my arm. On the sheets. On the clinical tiles.

Then, he turned to me, dead serious, and asked, “Do you want to make it up to me?”

I nodded, heart in my throat. “I’ll give you anything you want.”

“Anything?”

“Anything,” I promised.

“I want your happiness.”

I blanched, scared of where he’d take this. “Seb …”

“Walk away from Briar Rose.”

It felt like he’d sucker punched me. “Excuse me?”

“You took away any chance at happiness I had. I’m taking away yours. Leave Briar Rose, live your miserable life without her, and remember what it’s like to have what you care most about ripped away from you.”

I could’ve said no. Told him that he’d only said that out of anger, and fear, and frustration at losing everything. That maybe in a month, or a year, or even five, he would regret he’d ever asked me to give her up.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I agreed.

“Because you asked me to,” I said quietly, even though I didn’t believe myself.

“That’s a steaming pile of bullshit, and you know it.” Sebastian stepped back, shaking his head and turning off the faucet. “But fine. I promise not to tear her limb from limb if she finds her way here.”

“Thank you.”

“But I can’t promise I won’t talk shit about you.”

He was already pulling down his shorts, my cue to leave.

“That’s fine.” I waved a hand behind my back. “Join the club.”

“I’m the chairman.” I slammed the door in his face, shaking my head, but not before he managed to yell, “Don’t worry, Ollie. If it makes you feel any better, I’m sure she hates you less than I do.”