“Let me go—” I struggle against his hold but it’s useless, his arm is locked around me and the horse is moving and if I fight too hard I’ll fall and—
“Never.” His voice is ragged, broken. “Evianne, never.”
“You said it was over—”
“I lied.”
The horse is slowing now, transitioning from a canter to a walk, but he doesn’t let me down. Doesn’t loosen his grip. Just keeps me trapped against his chest like he’s afraid I’ll disappear if he lets go.
“I’m so sorry—” he starts.
Same time I say, “I don’t believe you—”
We both stop.
Silence except for our ragged breathing and the horse’s hooves on gravel.
“Please,” he says, and his voice is so broken it hurts to hear. “Please, Evianne, just let me—”
“Let you what?” I twist in his arms, awkward on the horse, until I can see his face. “Let you explain how you only pretended to want me? How you were just using me this whole time?”
“That’s not—”
“You said it yourself.” The words rip out of me, and I can feel them scraping my throat raw. “You said you only wanted me so you could take my virginity, so which part of that was a lie, Veil? The part where you asked me to be your girlfriend? Or the part where you said you’d forgive—
“I lied,” he cuts me off in a voice that’s raw with agony. “Every cruel word. It’s all a lie.”
“And I’m s-supposed to just believe that? How can I trust you—”
“Because I didn’t know about Joseph.”
Everything stops.
The horse keeps walking, but inside me, everything just...stops.
“What does Joseph have to do with—”
“He’s here.” Veil’s voice is barely holding together. “He showed up at the gates tonight. During the gala. Told security he was your fiancé.”
“He’s—” I struggle to process what he’s saying. How can Joseph be here? And why is Veil thinking—oh, I just don’t get it, and all I can do is shake my head. “He’s n-not my fiancé.”
“I know that now.” His arm tightens around me. “But I didn’t know it then. All I knew was that a man showed up claiming you were his, and you’d never told me about him, and I thought—”
His voice breaks.
“I thought you’d been playing me. This whole time. I thought everything between us was a lie, and I was so angry, so destroyed by it, that I wanted to hurt you as badly as you’d hurt me.”
“So you said those things because of Joseph?” Something hot and sharp is building in my chest. “You destroyed me because you believed a stranger over me?”
“Yes.” He doesn’t flinch from it. Doesn’t try to soften it. “And I will never forgive myself for that.”
“You didn’t even ask me.” My voice is shaking now. “You didn’t even give me a chance to explain. You just let me kiss you, you let me think everything was fine, and then you—”
“I know.”
“You said prove it.” The realization hits me and it’s almost worse than the cruelty itself. “You let me pour everything into that kiss, and then you used it against me.”
“I know.” His voice cracks. “And it was the worst thing I’ve ever done.”
