“Still fucking treason,” he said. “A lot of people died, Lily. Even your own father almost passed on.”
I nodded, the sadness filling me again. “I know.”
“Even if I didn’t have a dog in the fight, that’s the most fucked-up thing I’ve ever heard. Everything Callum did for you was just making up for how he’d betrayed you. And he waited until now to tell you?”
“Said he was afraid I wouldn’t have accepted his help.”
“And youshouldn’thave accepted his help.”
“So if this were you, and the woman you loved told you this, you’d be done?”
“Without question,” he said. “If my brothers and sisters put their lives on the line for a battle my woman caused, there would be no going back from that. Even if this were you, we’d be done.”
“And you aren’t just saying that?”
“No.” He shook his head. “It’s still hard for me to wrap my mind around it because it doesn’t seem like something Callum would do. I never thought he was right for you, but he always seemed loyal to you. But he was a traitor.”
I swallowed, my heart sinking all over again.
“And the fact that you’re still so loyal to him blows my mind.”
I stared at the surface of the table underneath my tankard.
“I’m sorry, Lily,” he said with a tone of compassion. “I can’t even imagine how you must feel right now.”
“Yeah. I don’t feel great.”
He stared at me across the table, watching me intently, like he expected me to burst into tears. The sympathy he wore seemed genuine, like he really did feel bad for me that I had to deal with this. There was no victory or hope in his gaze. “What’s happened since he told you?”
“We’ve been living apart. My father gifted him a vineyard. He’s been working to get it up and running again.”
“You haven’t spoken?”
“I went over there and told him I still loved him, but I needed more time.”
“Wow,” he said as he shook his head. “That’s kind of you.”
“When he first told me, I wasn’t so kind.”
He gave a slight nod in understanding. “You think you’ll be able to forgive him?”
“I—I don’t know. But I’m going to try as hard as I can.”
His eyes dropped to the tankard he’d barely touched, and he reached for it again and took a drink.
“I love him. I can’t help it.”
He didn’t judge me for the admission, just absorbed it in silence.
“I just hope that love will be enough.”
He continued to stare at the tankard, his arms crossed over his chest, reflecting on everything I’d just shared with him. “I think you deserve more than love, Lily. You deserve honesty and integrity and loyalty. Even if you never give me a chance, that’s fine. You can have any man you want, so don’t settle for someone who can’t give you everything. Because I promise you, you can easily find someone who can.”
We walked back to the castle, and I assumed Viper was staying in one of the bedchambers my father had undoubtedly offered to him. But he walked with me all the way to the villa, always keeping about seven feet in between us.
I made it to the door then turned back to him. “I guess you’ll be leaving tomorrow?”
“No,” he said. “I have nowhere to be.”
