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“Walk away,” Ursin said to the man. “And don’t allow anyone to come down this hall until I say so. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.” The man walked away, his shoes tapping down the glossy tiled floor.
I met Ursin’s gaze. “I just found out about you today in class.”
“So, you were going to take the final exam after all.” He grunted. “I lost hope that you would.”
“I did too. For a little while.” But I wasn’t talking about the exam, was I? “I know you were coming to see me.”
He nodded. “I was.”
“Why?” The question was a whisper on my lips. I nearly didn’t ask.
“Your mother visited me. She brought evidence to prove you were right about my father.” His eyes dropped. Oh, God, he must have been destroyed to know the truth, and without his mother around, he could never get the full story.
Tears bubbled up in my eyes. I knew what it was like to think your hero, your father, wasn’t the man you believed him to be. I knew the betrayal well. But I wasn’t sure how to feel about my mother going behind my back. I was conflicted about the new information.
“You didn’t know.”
“I didn’t.” My voice wavered. “I’m sorry she did that and not me. It should have been me to do it. I was just scared. I thought it was over.”
“It was.”
Was? As in no longer over? As in, we had a chance to rebuild?
A long pause moved in the space around us, taming flames of the uncertainty, the unsaid.
“How are you standing right now?” I glanced at the hospital bed where I presumed he’d been lying before I tried to break in.
“By my sheer hatred.”
“For me?” I panicked.
“For me.” He lifted a finger to my cheek and caressed me. “I deserve this pain I feel.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Neither of us do. I know that now.”
“I knew love would destroy me.” His glorious hazel gaze pinned mine. “It almost killed me.”
My heart jumped in my throat. Love. Did he say love? That’s exactly what I wanted to hear, what I needed to know before I never saw him again.
“I love you too, Ursin. So much, it hurts.” I dropped my arms and stepped back, I needed to see his whole face. “But will we destroy each other?”
He sighed. “We already have. We’ve ruined each other.”
I nodded. Yes, we had. “What do we do now?”
He paused for a long time, surveying me, taking his time to dance his gaze over my face. “I want a reality where I can be free to give you what you deserve.”
His admission wrenched my heart, and burned my eyes with tears. I knew what he really felt inside. I felt it too.
“We aren’t our fathers, Ursin. The self-destruction isn’t ours to bear anymore.” He pulled me into him somehow, wincing with my touch. “We don’t have to suffer for what they were.”
“No.” His voice was muffled against my neck.
“I want to be new again, Ursin. With you.”
He took a long sigh. “Then you will be. And so will I.”
