"I don't love you anymore!"
"I don't love you anymore!"
Something inside him broke. His grip loosened, and he collapsed against my shoulder like a wounded animal, his voice dissolving into something close to a whimper.
"Louisa, I'm begging you."
"Let me go."
"I don't want anything, Louisa. Nothing. I just want her. She's all I want."
I felt the tremor running through his voice, and my mind pulled me back seven years, to when Justin had knelt before the entire Simmons family for me. He'd been shaking just like this, crying until he had nothing left, forcing out the words through sheer will.
"I don't want an arranged marriage."
"I don't want whoever you've picked for me."
"I only want Louisa."
"I love Louisa."
"I'm hopelessly in love with Louisa, and she's the only one I want to be with."
Justin Simmons, golden son of the Simmons dynasty. The sole heir. All he had to do was nod, and the world would have been handed to him on a silver platter.
But he didn't.
He stood by my side, unwavering, and said those words with the same tone, the same look on his face as today.
"Louisa."
"I'll give up everything."
"Even my life."
"As long as I have you."
Seven years.
That was all it took for everything to change.