Helpless frustration rose hot and acerbic, cutting through my chest and up my throat. I couldn’t be helpless, so I got angrier.
“How long have you known Grandfather was aware of us?”
Her lips parted, a deer caught in headlights.
“Fucking typical.” I laughed, but there was no humor in it. “You couldn’t tell the truth if there was a goddamn gun to your head.”
“I was trying to avoid this!” Pain strangled her. There was no Abigail glow and spark in her cheeks, she was hollowed and bone dry. Even the chandelier above couldn’t warm her. She looked miserable.
I started moving toward the dining room again, not certain of a plan but fueled by the need to fix this.
Fix that look on her face.
“You can’t.” She grabbed my wrist. I kept walking, dragging her with me. She dug her heels into the silver-blue patterned carpet in an attempt to anchor me.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill him right now.”
Her grip loosened enough for me to shuck her off, but I only made it a few more feet before she ran in front of me, arms splayed, attempting to block my path.
“You’ll die.”
I shrugged. “Not good enough.”
I pushed her out of the way as gently as I could.
Blood.
That was the only way I’d be satisfied.
“What about the fact that even if you manage to get past all the guards in there, I’d never see you again?” she yelled a
t my back. “What about me? What about what it will do to me?”
I spun on her. “And what about me, Abigail? What do you think marrying him will do to me?”
Her eyes found mine again, shining even in the low light. “Are you offering me something different?”
I turned away with a curse.
I had nothing, no life to offer her. She was Abigail Crowne, and if she didn’t marry who they told her to, she’d end up alone, abandoned, and discarded like I’d been.
I couldn’t fucking do that to her.
Helplessness and fear bubbled up, and I slammed my fist into the wall. Plaster fluttered to the floor, my breathing roaring thunder in my ears, and then I felt it… her hands. They were so light at first I thought it was air.
I found her eyes, and she was already looking up at me. So gentle and fucking heartbreaking. As her world collapsed, she was still thinking of me.
After a moment, she pulled back.
I shook out my hand. “This isn’t okay.”
“It doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter, Theo. When has it ever?”
I clasped her face between my palms and spun her around, pressing her against the wall. “You matter, Abigail. You matter.”
I slammed her against the wall, pinning her in a kiss.
ABIGAIL