Lareina drops her eyes. I give Grandmother a sharp look. “Your opinion isn’t necessary. Or particularly welcome.”
Lareina jerks her chin up to look at me.
Grandmother’s face reddens. “Not her.You. You’re the problem.”
“I amnot—”
“Please,” Lareina says. “It isn’t his fault. It’s mine.”
“You don’t have to defend him, child.” Grandmother straightens in her seat. “I never realized he had such a…fixation about giving his dates his leftovers. It shames me, but it also explains some things.” Her reproachful eyes sayI’mthe reason I can’t keep a girlfriend and haven’t gotten married all this time.
“That’s unfair.” Lareina places her hand on my arm. The sapphires on her band seem to wink at me reassuringly. “I have a psychological hang-up that makes it impossible to eat something people haven’t touched. Well, tasted, actually.”
I already suspected as much, so I don’t react. But I’m a bit surprised she’s being so upfront about it to my family. I didn’t expect her to reveal the secret when she hasn’t even talked to me about it.
“Oh my…” Akiko breathes out softly. The rest of my family stare at Lareina with concern.
“Why on earth would you have such a hang-up?” Aunt Jeremiah asks.
“She doesn’t have to tell you,” I say. My aunt starts with an innocuous question, but then turns it into a grueling cross-examination if she feels her curiosity hasn’t been satisfied. “It doesn’t matter how or why she has the problem. It’sherhistory,hertrauma. Nobody else is entitled to know, and the only thing she’s owed is our understanding.”
“It’s okay,” Lareina whispers. “I don’t want them to think you’re being rude or weird to me.”
The fact that she’s revealing what is an undoubtedly painful past to defend me clenches my heart and squeezes all the air out of my lungs. “What they think of me is irrelevant. The family will accept me the way I am.”
Chapter Eighteen
Lareina
Ares squeezes my hand, wordlessly communicating that I don’t have to reveal anything I don’t want to. Genuine concern infuses his gorgeous blue eyes. “Don’t relive the trauma because of me,” he whispers.
Warmth flows through me, as sweet as heated syrup. How can he be this nice when all he wants is respect and indifference? Or this is part of his being respectful?
Akiko looks vaguely uncomfortable, as though she can’t believe Ares doesn’t consider her close enough to know my past, while his brothers give off an “of course he doesn’t care” vibe. His father and aunt tilt back their drinks, and Catalina sighs, apparently resigned to the careless impudence ofthe family will accept me the way I am.
I shake my head. Ares has been nothing but protective and nice. Even when he was drugged out of his mind, he fought Rupert for me. Said he’d be my knight.
He might not remember that, but he’s continued to protect me and keep me feeling safe. Revealing my strange, unbelievable past is the least he deserves.
A little jittery, I turn to the others. My phobia isn’t something I’ve discussed much once I realized that most people prefer to look the other way…or else express judgment and disapproval. Some even outright gaslit me, saying there was no way my aunt could be that evil and that I must be mistaken. Many of themworked for her—like the therapists I was forced to see—and others knew her. My reputation for being eccentric didn’t help.
Almost unconsciously, I thread my fingers through Ares’s and inhale.I’ll stick to the bare facts and won’t get emotional. If he and his family don’t believe me… Well, at least I tried.
“I can’t eat anything that isn’t factory-sealed or already tasted by somebody. My aunt and her family tried to slow-poison me starting at age thirteen, just to keep me sick enough that I couldn’t lead a normal social life or continue going to school like I should. I almost died a few times when they fed me a bit too much out of impatience—or sometimes malice because I was particularly difficult or threw a wild party behind their backs.” I let out a small, humorless laugh. “Although they regretted it pretty quickly every time I had to be rushed to the ER. If I died, they’d get nothing.”
“What?” Ares’s fingers flex. He stares at me, horror slackening his face.
The room goes still, like somebody hit the pause button. It would be almost comical if my situation weren’t so sad. The twins’ forks are angled the same way, and Jeremiah’s mouth stays parted. Prescott’s hand clutches at nothing as it lies palm down next to the plate. Akiko has her fingers pressed against her mouth, and Catalina’s head is tilted, her brow furrowed. It is, as the French say, atableau.
The three wolves on the coat of arms behind Catalina, caught in mid-leap, contribute to the effect.Pietas et unitasglints, reflecting the chandelier’s glow.Loyalty and unity. Wouldn’t it be great to be part of that circle?I think with a tight longing in my heart. I wouldn’t lean on them too much, but in some of those moments when I’m exhausted, just tired to the bone, I’d love to be able to rest my head on a shoulder and take a moment to catch my breath.
The tableau breaks, and I’m suddenly uncomfortable at being in the center of the Huxley family’s intense scrutiny. I realize that I expected them to make light of the situation like everyone else, and now I’m at a loss when they don’t. “I know it sounds far-fetched—”
“No.” Ares’s voice is calm, but underneath seethes a carefully restrained rage. “It makes complete sense. And now I know why you climbed over to my hotel balcony in Vegas.”
“What?” everyone else shouts in unison.
“She used the gargoyle bas-reliefs on the hotel wall to climb from her balcony to mine. We were on the seventeenth floor,” he tells his family.
