He had no idea it had just begun.
A strange, humming quiet filled my ears, drowning out everything but the sight of his smile. My body was a statue, frozen in the ruins of the one hopeful thing I had let myself want. My knees gave out, and I sank onto the sofa, my arms wrapping tight around my middle.
I couldn’t leave. My father knew it. I would never abandon Hazel. So I was stuck. Stuck traveling the world, living in Griffin’s space, watching him smile at me, completely unaware that my presence in his life was now the biggest threat to it. Staying with him would destroy him. Leaving him meant leaving Hazel.
There was no way out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
GRIFFIN
Fucking hell. Julian Carter gave us his blessing.
The relief nearly knocked me sideways. Months of walking on eggshells, of Julian’s cold stares and thinly veiled threats, and now actual approval. He’d looked at Violet and me like we were exactly what he wanted.
One look at Violet’s pale face and my grin faltered. The elation curdled in my stomach, replaced by dread.
“Vi?” I crossed the room and kneeled in front of her. “Hey. What’s wrong?”
Her gaze finally snapped to mine, and the raw devastation there knocked the air from my lungs. She looked gutted. Hollowed out.
“He planned this,” she whispered, her voice flat, dead. “All of it.”
I frowned. “Planned what? You’re not making sense.”
“Us.” She gestured vaguely between us. “He wanted this to happen. He’s happy about it.”
I stared at her, completely lost. “Yeah, I heard. Isn’t that a good thing?”
For weeks, her father had been the storm cloud on our horizon. Now the sun was out, and she looked like she was waiting for the flood.
“No, it’s not.” Her hands twisted in her lap.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Julian was a controlling bastard, sure, but he’d seemed… proud.
“How could it be bad?”
“I can’t protect you from him.”
“Come off it.” I scoffed. “I don’t need you to protect me, gorgeous.”
She stared up at me, moisture glimmering in her eyes. “You have no idea how wrong you are.”
I’d survived six years under Julian’s thumb. Granted, the man was relentless, but I’d learned to navigate his temper, figured out when to bite my tongue.
None of that was comforting now. Looking at her face, seeing the tears threatening to spill, pressure built behind my sternum.
“Jesus, Vi, for weeks you’ve said he’s the only reason we can’t last. Now that obstacle is gone. Why doesn’t your face know that?”
I reached for her shoulder and she pulled away before I made contact.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It clearly does.”
What was I missing? I waited, hoping she’d fill in the gaps but she just continued staring at her hands.
“Talk to me.” I sank onto the sofa beside her. “Your dad just gave us the green light. We can stop hiding. We can actually be together. This is what we wanted, isn’t it?”
