“I would love that,” I said, my voice shaky.
He dragged his teeth across his bottom lip seductively. Nudging me back, his firm hands shifted the hem of my dress up my thighs and revealed my panties.
“Don’t.” I shivered. “No.”
“No?”
“I have to tell you something.”
Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it.
There’ll be no way back. No way back for either of you.
“I thought you liked it.”
“I don’t want to be with you.” Squeezing my eyes shut, I hated myself for saying it, hated the words as though they hadn’t spilled from my own mouth.
He stepped back, looking confused. His intense focus tried to read the truth from the woman who’d just shot an arrow into his beating heart.
If you love him, you’ll let him go.
This is was the only way to save him.
I slid off the counter. “I told you I wanted to be with you because you scared me.”
His face contorted in quiet agony.
“I can’t hold it in anymore.”
“You’re lying.” He looked out of the window as though trying to decode what had happened before he’d come home.
“I’m going to my room.” I went to leave. “I don’t want to see you ever again.”
“You can’t leave,” he said bitterly.
“I am.”
His brows knitted together. “Did Ridley say something?”
“That’s right. Throw the blame onto anyone but you.” Clutching my belly, I tried to hide this ache, this anguish, the hurt that felt like I was birthing grief itself.
“We need to talk,” he said softly.
“We’ve done enough of that ever since I was brought here against my will, don’t you think?”
“Where are you going?”
I spun around. “If you really care about me, you’ll let me have some time alone.” I stormed out along the hallway, heart wrenching in anguish, my body shaking so bad I felt shell-shocked.
I was traumatized, just like anyone who’d suffered a terrible ordeal—but I cared more about what I was doing to Cassius.
This is the only way.
Not stopping, refusing to look back, refusing to have any excuse to return to him and beg his forgiveness—fearing I’d not survive seeing what was in his eyes, I scurried out the front door and sprinted toward the Lexus parked not that far away.
Climbing inside the passenger seat, I gave a nod to Ridley that I was ready to leave.
You’ll never be ready.
A part of me would always be trapped here in the shadows of the agony that I’d left behind. The futility I’d caused.
You’re just like the others, I scorned myself.
“What did you say to him?” asked Ridley.
“Drive. Just drive.” Tears sprang, and I couldn’t stop them.
“You did the right thing.”
“Why did you tell him Archie was fine?”
“We don’t need him being heroic.”
We accelerated fast and I was shoved back into the seat with a violent propulsion. Thrust so hard that going in the wrong direction was impossible to fight. This was the only way to save him.
Cassius, forgive me.
Forgive the world just one more time.
As my thoughts left him in that dark place, they turned toward the cruelest future. One where I knew what my parents thought about me. A loveless home that felt more sinister than ever. The ominous tendrils of that Garden District house drew me closer.
In saving Archie, I’d lost myself.
Cassius
Waiting on the doorstep, I felt a warped sense of reality as I watched Ridley’s Lexus navigate up the driveway toward the estate.
Possessed by fury, I stormed toward his parked car. Not even waiting for him to get out. I yanked the door open and pulled him out by the scruff of his shirt.
“What did you do?”
“Cassius, please.” He cowered.
I slammed him back against the car. “Where is she?”
“Calm down.”
Letting go of him, I stepped back. “Tell me you didn’t take her back!”
“I tried to intercede between you and Glassman.”
“What the fuck!”
“He’s going to kill you, Cassius,” he snapped. “Are you so blind you can’t see it?”
“For the gold—”
“His fucking daughter.”
“He doesn’t love her.”
“You don’t know that.”
“She’s been a prisoner in that house her whole life.”
He reacted to that with a sly glare.
“And how long was she a prisoner in yours? Five weeks.”
“Don’t you dare judge me.”
“He’s still her father. I had to take her back.” He pointed a finger at me. “I risked my life trying to placate him.”
“You betrayed me.”
“It’s over, Cassius. She’s gone.” He motioned to clarify. “Anya’s home. With her brother.”
“I shouldn’t have let her leave.”
“Right, because that’s totally normal.”
“Glassman killed my parents. And you just wander up to Stephen’s front door for a chat.”
“He called me. He came to me.”
“And you took the meeting?”
“You were gonna kill her.” His face contorted into disgust. “Think about that. And she knew. She might have forgiven you, but she knew what you’d planned for her. What did you expect to happen? You both wander off into the sunset together?”
She changed me. She saved me.
“You don’t know anything. What we have.”