Her eyes dropped immediately, all that light fading from her face. The silence that followed was suffocating.
“Right. Sorry, of course. I’d love to,” she whispered, turning away before I could say anything to make it worse.
“I’m exhausted from the gathering. I’m going to bed.”
She moved, shoulders tight, and began undressing in silence. The zipper of her dress sounded painfully loud in the quiet room.She stripped off the purple fabric, letting it fall to the floor before slipping into a soft camisole. I watched her closely, realizing how often she did this, put on a show, pretending she wasn’t breaking. Pretending she was fine.
She crawled into bed without another word. I followed, careful not to make it seem like pity, and wrapped my arms around her from behind. She tensed for a moment, then went still. I pressed my forehead to the back of her neck, pretending I didn’t hear the small, broken sound she tried to swallow down.
Her tears soaked the pillow. And I stayed quiet, holding her tighter, not knowing how to make this better.
Chapter 12
Elowyn
Abram was not in bed when I woke up. I could hear him in the kitchen doing something, but I didn’t bother getting up. My gaze moved to the window where dark clouds moved over our home. Last night had been terrible. The witches implied I was making up Abram, and I couldn’t even bring myself to argue with them.
It was a sham. All of this was fake.
The floor boards creaked, alerting me that Abram was in the room with me. I glanced over to him, and he smiled brightly with a tray of food.
“Morning, wife.”
The term made Nyxthra stir in my chest. I sat up and glanced at the plate of pastries, eggs and sausages, and tea. Abram was watching me like he wanted to see my reaction.
“This looks great.” I smiled softly.
I didn’t look at him as I took a bite of the pastry. What time did he wake up to do this? His eyes were burning a hole in me, so I finally looked up. He was watching me thoughtfully.
“I’m sorry I didn’t go with you to the coven last night.”
I shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. Besides, you were working.”
He fell to his knees so we were eye level as he grabbed my hand and swallowed hard.
“I should’ve gone. It was important to you, and I should’ve rescheduled my meeting. I promise, I’ll go to the next one no matter what.”
I nodded.
“Okay.” I didn’t know what to say.
“Maybe we should talk about your disappointment about me not telling my family we are married,” he whispered like I would spook. “I could tell that I hurt your feelings about going to Della’s separately.”
I looked at the plate of food as I removed my hand from his. I took a bite of eggs as he stared at me.
“You didn’t hurt my feelings.” I lied because I didn’t want to talk about this. It wouldn’t change anything.
“Elowyn…”
“Abram,” I cut in, sharper than I meant to. “You told me you’d only agree to this marriage if we kept it secret. Iunderstand.”
His expression faltered. “But—”
“Please.” I snapped the word before I could stop myself. “You have a mate that isn’t me. You don’t want anyone to know about me, aboutthis.You don’t want anyone to know you ever touched me.”
The air between us turned cold. I could feel Nyxthra stirring. My emotions were too much, and she was waiting like a predator wanting to strike back at Abram for making me feel like this.
“I’m not delusional about what this is,” I said, voice trembling. “It has an expiration date. It’s not real. I can handle one dinner with your family without exposing your dirty secret.”
