Page 65 of The Billionaire's Vow

The cold, sterile room smelled of stale coffee and sweat.The fluorescent light buzzed overhead, casting a harsh glow over the metal table and the man sitting across from her—the man who was supposed to be her brother.

Craig looked up, his expression shifting from wary to relieved the moment he saw her.His shoulders sagged, his lips parting as if he’d been holding his breath.“I knew you’d come,” he exhaled.“Dimitri said you wouldn’t, but you always come through for me, Zelly.”

Giselle stared at him, her hands flat against the cold metal table, her pulse a steady, restrained rhythm in her ears.

Shehadalways come through for him.

She had defended him against their parents, against their friends, against every rational person who had warned her to stop enabling him.She had always believed he wasbetterthan the things he did.That he just needed someone to believe in him, someone to fight for him, because if she didn’t, who would?

“I should have connected you to Elliot over a month ago,” she said, conversationally as she sat down across from him.“Elliot accosted me in the street and he used your nickname for me.”She tilted her head slightly.“You’re the only one who calls me Zelly.”Craig opened his mouth to explain but Giselle lifted her hand, not interested in anything he had to say.“Don’t,” she snapped.“I’m guessing you came by my office one day to visit me?”At his stunned expression, she chuckled.“No, you probably came by one day to beg for money.”She sighed.“And you ran into Elliot instead.”She tapped a fingernail on the metal table.“Who came up with the idea?”

“It wasn’t… I mean,” he started, stammering as he tried to come up with something she would believe.

“Never mind,” she said, sighing heavily.

She had sacrificed for him.Lied for him.Loved him.And now, this.Her voice was quiet but sharp enough to cut.“Who broke into my apartment and destroyed my things?”

Craig stiffened.Giselle tilted her head, watching him.“It wasn’t you,” she stated.“But you know who did it.”

His eyes darted away.He swallowed hard, but it was no use.She already knew.

“Elliot,” she murmured, feeling the name like a blade sliding between her ribs.

Her stomach clenched, bile rising in her throat.How could he?

She had defended him, sworn up and down to Dimitri that Craig was just thoughtless and made bad choices sometimes, but he wasn’tmalicious.That he made bad choices, but he wasn’t abadperson.

But now?

Her brother sat across from her, his hands cuffed to a table because he had let that man destroy her home, search her life, looking for the reports she had been working on—reports that held the first solid lead on who had been stealing from Dimitri.And then her damned brother had shown up and helped her sweep up the mess!

That night, when she’d been terrified and humiliated, wondering how she was going to replace what had been destroyed, Craig had known.For how long?

Her palms pressed into the tabletop as her breath came sharp and unsteady.“You let him,” she whispered.

Craig’s head snapped up.“No!Giselle, I didn’t—I swear, I didn’t know until after—”

Her laugh was bitter, hollow.“Until after,” she repeated.“And what did you do then, Craig?After youfound out?Did you tell him to stop?Did you tell me?Did youdo anythingat all?”

His lips parted, but no words came out.

She let the silence stretch between them, heavy and suffocating.

Nothing but his guilt.

Her throat tightened.“I’ve spent my whole life believing in you,” she whispered.“I was the only person who ever stood by you, Craig.No matter how many times you screwed up, no matter how many bad decisions you made, I told myself, ‘He’s still good.He’s just lost.’”

Her hands curled into fists on the table.

“Butthis?”She shook her head.“This wasn’t a bad choice.This wasyoudeliberately looking away when it suited you.This wasyouchoosing someone else over me.”

Craig flinched like she had slapped him.“Zelly, I—”

“Do you know what it felt like?”she interrupted, her voice shaking now.“Walking into my apartment and seeing everything destroyed?Knowing that someone had ripped through my life?”

His face crumpled and he tried to lift his hands toward his face, but the handcuffs stopped the movement.“I didn’t want this, Giselle.”

Her breath hitched.Liar.