Her breath shudders in her throat. Not a sob, not a breakdown, just that first crack in a wall someone has held up too long. "I-I can't."
"I'm your husband, so you have to," I insist.
She slowly looks up at me.
I drag my knuckles over her cheek. "It's you and me, so fill me in. Why aren't you happy? You got everything you wanted."
She blinks hard, then her face crumbles. She squeezes her eyes shut, and more tears spill.
"Hey," I softly say, tugging her closer, my heart beating faster.
She sniffles. "I don't know. I-I just kept seeing my parents. I-I don't think they'd be proud of me. I always thought they would, but not like this. Not branded with a scarlet letter and forcing a man to marry me."
The words hit me like a blunt object. I inhale deeply and release it. "You're being too hard on yourself."
She shakes her head. "I'm not. They stripped me over and over, and for what? So I could trap you for life and still be the only one in the membership with a scarlet letter?"
My heart sinks. I tug her over my waist so she has to look at me. In a firm tone, I tell her, "You didn't trap me. I agreed to this. I could have said no, and I didn't."
"Because I put you in this position!"
"No. You could have killed me the night they discovered I snuck into the fight. You didn't. So I owe my life to you," I admit.
She stares at me with glossy, rimmed-red, hazel eyes.
I swipe my thumb over her cheekbone. "You are Valentina Abruzzo O'Malley. You walked into their arena in black and turned it into a damn crown. You survived their trials. You outsmarted their games. You won."
Her mouth trembles. "I don't think I did."
My brow knots. "Minx?—"
"That seat doesn't change anything. My parents are still dead. TheUnderworld didn't give me justice. It just took more of me to let me sit at their table and smile while they pretend they're righteous."
My throat locks.
She stares at me with that helpless honesty that makes my chest ache. "And now you hate me."
"I don't. How many times do I need to tell you that?" The words punch out of me before I can soften it.
Her gaze drops. "You're an O'Malley. I'm an Abruzzo. You said my name in that vow because you had to. Not because you wanted to. You were forced into this seat because of me. You resent me. I saw it."
There's a vicious coil in my gut. I cup the back of her head and force her eyes back to mine. My voice comes out rough, sharp enough to cut. "Stop. I don't hate you. Not even close. And I never want to hear you say that again."
Her lips part.
My words spill out with heat I can't throttle. "I don't care what your last name was when you walked into this. I don't care about any of that. I care about the woman in front of me. The one who survived an arena full of monsters and still had enough spine to look them in the eye. And that woman doesn't need anyone's permission to exist."
Her eyes flicker, just barely.
"Do you hear me?" I press.
She nods.
I drag a breath through my teeth, the anger settling into something steadier. "When was the last time you slept?"
Her eyelids flutter like the question has to travel miles to reach her brain. "I don't know."
"Try. What day was it?"
