“Two days, then we leave. Who knows how long we’ll be gone? Then?—”
“Not that.”
“Then what? Aimilia, you can blame me for many things, but do not blame me when you lied to my face about my mother hurting you.”
Aimilia stepped forward, tear tracks still on her cheeks. “Why not? Why can’t I lie to you? What makes it so wrong?”
He reached forward to brush his thumb over her cheeks. “Aimilia, if you had been honest?—”
She pulled her head back, eyes shining all over again. “What do you care about honesty as you stand here lying with every breath?”
Nikias hand stilled in the air. “What are you talking about?”
“You hypocrite.” She breathed out, reaching up and using the heel of her palm to wipe away her tears. “You want to berate me for hiding my injury while you stand here and hide your own?”
Nikias was the one moving back now. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Her other hand came up, fingers brushing the illusion and finding his black eye. Her voice broke again. “You have been hiding your injuries and lying for years. Drop the illusion,Nikias. There’s no point. You’re not fooling me about what happened after I left.”
The floor fell out beneath his feet all over again, but he couldn’t even move to catch himself. He had to be sleeping. This had to be a new nightmare come to torment him.
“Aimilia—”
Her eyes were still brimming, but her voice was solid. “Drop the illusion.”
How? How could she have possibly known?
But he was left with his own hypocrisy throbbing in his temples, so he did.
Aimilia’s hand fell along with the illusion. She sucked in a sharp breath, but otherwise her expression did not change. She hadn’t been bluffing.
“How… How long have you known?” Nikias whispered, shifting back.
Aimilia shook her head, voice thick. “All these years, you let me believe it was just Gavril. I’ve hated you for years because I thought it was just Gavril and you were the coward who wouldn’t stand up to them!”
He crossed his arms, digging his nails into his arms. “Did he tell you?”
Aimilia let out a sharp, nearly hysterical laugh. Her hands smacked her sides as her two little words pierced the air, small but excruciatingly sharp. “He knows?”
So clearly not then.
“He’s the only one.” Until now. Nikias was going to be sick.
“Oh—I—” A frustrated noise garbled anything she might have been trying to say. “Why?”
All he could do was stare at her as one of his worst nightmares came to fruition. The scar over his chest burned. This couldn’t also contain the worst of his nightmares coming to pass, could it?
Nikias could only stare at her.
She knew.
No one was ever supposed to find out. It was supposed to be over before anyone ever could. How could he have let this happen?
Faustina had never known and they’d been married. Aimilia had never once suspected it.
His skin burned like the sun had fallen from the sky and he was engulfed in it. The bile churning in his stomach kept threatening to rise up.
What had he done?
