Yanna bit her lip in misery, stemming the flow of words that wanted to come out of her mouth. The cold hard look on Staffan’s face told her that whatever she would say or do would be futile. “I know you won’t believe me if I defend Saffi over and over to you, Staffan – but at least listen to me when I tell you that a woman in love knows when another woman feels the same way as she does. I love Constantijin with all my heart and everything I feel for him – I see it in Saffi’s eyes…and it’s all for you.”
“Again, Yanna, you’re being f**king deceived. I have to go now. I’m going to meet with Chloe.” As he ended the call, Staffan did his best to forget the stricken look on Yanna’s face when she realized what he was about to do.
The call from Chloe had been a shock, but it had not affected him in the way Staffan had thought it would. If he had to put a word to it, he was ambivalent about meeting her but his heart no longer felt it was being shredded at the mere thought of her. It just went to show, Staffan thought with hardening anger, how much Saffi had f**king destroyed him with her lies.
Parking his car in one of the reserved basement slots for his family, Staffan took the private elevator to get to the café. When the doors parted, he was stunned by the first person he saw.
Saffi.
The way she kept rubbing her eyes was familiar, something she typically did to keep herself from crying. His heart squeezed at the sight, but Staffan told himself it was none of his f**king business if she cried or not. He shouldn’t f**king care since he had left their home this afternoon just for the sake of making Saffi think he was out to do shit.
He deserved to hurt her. She deserved to be hurt. So if she was f**king crying now---
Fuck.
Staffan couldn’t believe how stupid he was. She was f**king crying because she probably knew Chloe was here – probably even spoke to her. She was just the type to confront Chloe even if she had no idea how such an encounter would turn out.
Was she thinking he would be two-timing her just as she did him?
He shouldn’t care if she did. She f**king deserved to be labeled a fool the way he had been labeled one ever since the news of her pregnancy broke out.
Staffan was still telling himself that when he finally reached Chloe’s table. As he slid into the seat across her, he realized with unconcealed shock that Chloe looked old, and it was not because she was years older than him.
It was the jaded look in her eyes, the cynical twist to her lips as she smiled at him. All of those things, he acknowledged uneasily, applied to him as well.
“And so,” she said with a soft mocking laugh, “we meet again, my love.” Chloe had hoped to disconcert Staffan but instead, he only responded with a smile so unaffected, it made her blink.
Staffan said just as softly, “Today’s circumstances are better than the last time we met, certainly.” Before she could speak, he told her blandly, “I know why you asked to meet me.”
She stiffened but did her best to brazen it out even as her heart pounded with fear. “Of course you do, my love. I’m single and you could be single, too---”
“You are currently one million dollars in debt.”
Chloe’s mouth closed, her eyes flashing with humiliated fury at the realization that Staffan Aehrenthal did know of her predicament – he probably knew every shitty detail about it. “And so you agreed to this meeting just to turn me down in person?” Chloe was snarling, but inside, the fear of imprisonment was making her feel faint. She could not – would not – survive behind bars. She would probably kill herself before that happened.
The sight of Staffan shaking his head confused her.
“Then what?” she demanded.
Staffan slowly leaned back against his chair. “I want to see you beg, Chloe. I want to hear you beg for your life the way I begged you in the past.”
Chloe whitened at his words. She remembered the cruel way she had left him, remembered how she had gloried in the way he was suffering because he loved her so much. It had fed her ego back then, made her believe that she was worth so much more than being engaged to a rags-to-riches heir.
Looking at Staffan, she knew that he could and would extract a much more punishing revenge from her now. Then, he was just begging Chloe for her love. Now, she would need to beg him for her life.
Shame and pride made her react spontaneously. Chloe grabbed the glass of water on the table and threw the contents at Staffan. “Fuck off!” She knew the moment she did it, there was no turning back.
She was over. Her life was over.
Chloe started to shake. “I’m s-sorry.”
She had expected Staffan to fly into a rage at what she had done. The old Staffan she knew would have. But this one was…different. He was much colder, harder, a smirk playing on his lips as he calmly took out a handkerchief to wipe the water from his face.
“That was the wrong thing to do, Chloe,” he murmured as he set the handkerchief on the table. “I only wanted to hear you grovel but now…” Staffan came to his feet gracefully, and suddenly it struck her – the sheer beauty of him, the rawness of his sexuality – Staffan Aehrenthal was still the most intensely beautiful man she had ever met, and he had loved her.
Staffan had loved her, and she had thrown it back at his face because she had loved herself more.
“Have a good life behind bars.”
As he turned, terror enveloped her body and she cried out, “Wait.”
Staffan stilled, but he didn’t turn, wouldn’t perform even the smallest compromise to make it easy for her. And in the deepest part of her, Chloe knew she couldn’t blame him. “I’ll f**king beg.” Every word was forced out of her. She hated the way her voice shook, hated the way her entire body shook, but Chloe couldn’t stop it.
A million dollars in debt…
And it was all because she had tried to buy happiness by gambling.
“Do you want me on my knees?”
Staffan finally turned to her. His beautiful face was completely expressionless, and his voice was was just as bland as he said politely, “If you wish.”
“I don’t f**king wish.” The words came out a furious scream, and she knew with those words she had already lost every bit of her pride and self-respect. With that scream, it was as if she was begging every patron inside the restaurant, every f**king waiter, to witness her humiliation.
Here lay Chloe Gustav, once a famous actress, now a bankrupt has-been forced to beg the one man who had loved the real her.