Page 231
“You tell me we’ll talk later, and then later comes and you brush me off again.”
“I came to your room tonight.”
“To order me on a walk after telling me I had no place in something involving my own family.”
“I came to speak to you after your father called my mother a whore and hit me twice. You folded your arms and asked whether you were allowed.”
“Because I was angry.”
“So was I.”
“You’re still angry.”
“You’re fucking right I am.”
“Then let me say what I need to say while you’re finally angry enough to answer me.”
I stare at her. “You have no idea what you’re asking for.”
“I have apologized to everyone except the person I actually betrayed. You stop me every time I get close.”
“Because I do not have the capacity to carry your apology tonight.”
“I’m not asking you to carry it.”
“That is exactly what you’re asking. You want to put it in my hands, watch how I react, and decide what the reaction means for us.”
Her face tightens. “Maybe everything between us needs to be ruined before any of it can be rebuilt.”
“Haven’t we been through enough tonight?”
“I found out everyone I trust knew what Lance had done while I walked around this castle obliviously thinking I understood my own plan. Then I found out my mother is leaving him because you threw it at him during a fight nobody allowed me to enter.” She crosses her arms again. “Refusing to talk about it doesn’t protect tonight. It only keeps everything unfinished.”
“This was unfinished before the weekend started.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.” I set the bottle down hard enough to make the glass jump. “You know the outline. You do not know what happens when I open the rest.”
“Then tell me.”
“I don’t want to.”
“You said you would talk to me.”
“I said I would talk when I was ready. I did not promise to tear myself open whenever your anxiety decided it needed an answer.”
Charm drops her arms. “I’m not trying to force you.”
“That is all you have done since you walked through my door.”
“Only because I can feel you pulling away again!”
Her shout strikes the stone walls. I turn from the table and find her standing in the middle of the room with both hands clenched at her sides.
“I’m standing right here.”
“Your body is here. The rest of you keeps reaching for the door.”
