chapter 22
He looked at her first, not me. And that was the strangest part. Not rage. Not relief.
Betrayal so deep it looked almost childlike.
“You were running again,” he said.
She backed away. “Don’t come near me.”
His laugh was low and hollow. “After everything I did for you?”
Something inside me snapped.
“For her?” I said. “You mean for yourself.”
His gaze cut to me.
In it I saw the man from the basement. The man who had stood over me certain his suffering sanctified anything he wanted to inflict.
He moved toward me.
Gideon came in from the side before Ethan could reach me, but I lifted a hand.
“No.”
Ethan stopped.
Rain. Breath. The sharp tang of wet metal.
“You want truth?” I said. “Here it is. She lied to you. About the drugging. About me. About the plane. And you took every lie she handed you and carved it into my skin because it was easier than asking whether the woman you loved was capable of cruelty.”
His face had gone white.
Rose was crying openly now. “Ethan, I was scared—”
“You were alive,” he said, almost soundlessly.
“Yes.”
“All this time.”
“Yes.”