She spins, silk slipping off her shoulders. “You think she’s strong? She’s poison. She drags everyone down with her drama. You think she’d pick you if she had a real choice?”
“I know she would. I know she does.” I don’t owe Aria an explanation. I don’t owe her shit. But it feels good to say the words once, after all these years. “You’re the only one here who ever believed your own bullshit.”
She starts pacing. It’s a show, but it’s also her version of an animal running the perimeter of its cage. “All this time, I was there for you. Four fucking years. I would have done anything for you.”
“Sex isn’t love, Aria.” I close my eyes because the light from the chandelier is starting to pulse with every heartbeat.
She goes still. “I killed for you.”
“Ryan?” I force my eyes open, take in the glassy gleam behind her own. “He was a liability the second you brought him here. I would have killed him myself, but you beat me to it.”
She smiles, and I see the crack in her. If I wanted, I could reach for the jagged edge and push. But then she starts again, and all I want is for her voice to stop echoing Parker out of my memory.
“I could be better for you, Silas. I could take care of you in ways she never could. She’s all fire, but it burns out. I’m steel. I keepgoing.” She steps close to the bed, close enough that her shadow falls over me. “Isn’t that what you always wanted? Someone who wouldn’t leave? Someone who’d burn for you, not just around you?”
“Why are you telling me this?” I ask, mostly because no one’s ever explained why narcissists keep trying to plead their case long after the jury’s gone home.
“She never had to prove herself.” Her voice gets smaller, almost a whisper. “Not like I did. Not like I do, every day of my life. I pulled myself out of nothing, out of the fucking trash, just to be here, and nobody ever gave a shit.”
“Dominic did,” I say the name to see if she’ll flinch.
She doesn’t. Lowers herself onto the edge of the bed, knee at my ribs. “Her father was kind to me. Not at first, but after…after he realized I was smarter than the idiots he had guarding his money. He taught me how to play the long game. But even then, it was always about Parker. The prodigal daughter. She was pregnant, and he just let her go instead of taking care of them.”
I clench my jaw. “How about you untie me and say that again.”
“They’re not even yours, Silas,” She slides her hand up my chest, fingers trailing until they rest at the bandaged thigh. “I patched you myself. Did you know that?” Her touch is gentle, almost reverent. “Your leg and I made sure they reversed what your parents did to you.”
I still.
She did what?
How long have I fucking been here?
“We can have our own family, Silas,” she says, her hand pressing against my face and I want to vomit. “You just have to remember…”
“I remember a lot,” I snort a laugh, “and none of it includes wanting you or giving you a hint of being more than what we did. If you can’t handle not getting what you want, you’re going to have a shit time in this world.”
Her face goes white, then red. The hand on my face becomes a fist that slams into my jaw hard enough to snap my head sideways.
“You’re lying,” she hisses. “You wanted me. You came to me. Over and over for four years, you came to me.”
“You were there,” I say, tasting copper. “I was horny. That’s not the same thing as wantingyou.”
“You fucking bastard.” She’s up now, pacing again, the silk robe flaring with each sharp turn. “I gave you everything?—”
“You gave me nothing I couldn’t get anywhere else,” I interrupt. “You were convenient. That’s all you’ve ever been.”
She stops pacing. Stands there in the middle of the room, trembling with rage or grief or whatever the fuck passes for emotion in her broken brain.
“You’re going to regret this,” she says quietly. “You think Charles and Cal and Jace are going to come for you? They won’t. They’ll keep Parker safe. They’ll protect those boys. And you’ll stay here with me until you understand what you’ve been too stupid to see.”
“That you’re insane?” I ask. “Already know that, thanks.”
“That you need me.” She moves back to the bed, and this time, when she climbs on, she straddles me over the sheet. The robe falls open. She’s naked underneath, and I keep my eyes on her face because looking anywhere else will make me vomit. “That without me, you’re nothing. That Parker doesn’t want the monster you really are, but I do. I always have.”
But then I see it.
In the corner of the room, mounted near the ceiling. Security monitor. The feed is clean, showing the hallway outside, two guards stationed at the door.
