“So you can’t be disappointed.” He follows my lead, and his shoulders tense. “That’s no way to live, Stasi.”
“It’s the only way,” I correct him. “And it took me a long time to learn that particular lesson.”
“I hate that you ever had to.” He rests his forehead against mine. “But I accept the challenge.”
My smile is small, but it’s there. “What happens if we manage to… I don’t know. Prove it?”
Kit’s mouth opens, but it’s not his voice that answers.
“If we manage to prove your innocence?” Silas steps down from the last step, his eyes on my face. Rafe is right behind him. “You’ll be free.”
“Good.” I look away from his expression. “So I can run far, far away from men who think they know everything?”
Beneath me, Kit stiffens.
Everyone stiffens.
“It will be your choice,” Silas says tightly. “But we need to get there, first.”
I cross my arms. Silas stares at me. I stare back.
“I’m waiting,” I say finally. “For my apology.”
He looks as though he’s accidentally bitten a wasp. “I’m sorry,” he says finally.
I turn to Kit with a questioning glance. “Did you hear something? Because I think a flea just made the smallest damn apology in history.”
To his credit and my disappointment, he doesn’t laugh, although his lips twitch up.
Silas lets out a growl. “Stasi.”
“Nuh uh.” I hold up my hand, cutting off his grumpy tone. “Want to try that again, with some meaning behind it?”
Silas’s brows dip into a low frown. And then he’s stalking forward. He picks me up from Kit’s lap, placing me on the counter.
And then hekneels.
“What are… what are you doing?” I glance at Kit and Rafe for help, but they’re watching Silas. Rafe looks especially grim.
“I’m apologizing,” he says quietly. “On my fucking knees. And it will not be enough, but consider this my starting point, Anastasia.”
All I do is stare at him.
“First,” he says softly. “I’m so fucking sorry for that night. For making you leave, when you begged me to help you. For not letting you take your things with you. For all of it. I was angry, and upset, and I took all of that out on you instead of just taking a single damn second to breathe. I was so, so fucking wrong. And I have regretted the loss of you every single day since.”
Oh. That’s… not a bad apology. Not the one I was expecting, but I’ll take it.
He raises an eyebrow at me. “May I continue?”
But he’s still an asshole. Crossing my arms, I tilt my chin up in invitation.
“Second.” He looks down at the floor. “I apologize for using your position here against you, when you first arrived. I used it to punish you because I was still angry. I was unfairly angry at you for leaving, and I was angry because of my father. I thought that in the absence of your mother, I could punish you instead. And it never should have happened that way.”
He fumbles, and his cheeks darken. I wonder when the last time was that Silas Tate issued an apology to anyone.
“This was your home,” he whispers. “And this has always been your home.”
His words hit me hard. Silas clears his throat without waiting for a response. “Third… I should have known that you would never have done those things. Because I knowyou, Anastasia. And I think… I think I did, really. But I allowed my anger and my grief to cloud my judgement, and the only victim of that was you. And even when I knew, it was somehow easier to pretend I didn’t, because then I would have to face my own actions.”
