For a beat, he hovers the teacup near his parted lips.
His gaze slides to me—then he sips and sinks into the cushions propped against the arm of the couch.
It would be more appropriate to tell him I have a headache and need to rest, or if I wanted to be rude, I could suggest that he enjoy his tea in his own chambers.
But I went for the blunt bludgeon option.
It brings his hard stare to mine.
“I didn’t come to fight with you,” he says. “I came to see how you are faring.”
I gesture to my face. “Dandy.”
It says it all, really. Dark circles under my dull, lifeless eyes, bloodshot. Puffy cheeks, tear stains, dishevelled hair.
The derisive smile I give borders on a snarl. “It makes everything so much easier to know I have the support of my loving family.”
There’s no smirk or even the ghost of one to lighten Oliver’s hard stare. If there is one thing we don’t joke about, it’s family.
Oliver takes that loyalty more to heart than I do.
But I guess we were raised differently, for different purposes.
Now that everything is crumbling around me, I understand things that should have been clear to me before—but it’s only now that I see them.
My family was never really going to be my forever family.
I was always going to join another.
That…
That’s a harder realisation than I can stomach.
I snatch out for a scone, barehanded, and let the crumbs dust all over the cotton trousers of my loungewear.
I pick at the scone. “Why are you really here?”
Oliver sits with the question for a beat. He drinks his tea, emptying the cup, before he sets it down on the table.
“You can say you’re here to check on me, but you’ve never cared before,” I add, and lift my dull gaze to him. “So don’t expect me to believe you’ve suddenly had a change of heart.”
The breath that escapes him is a whisper of a sigh. “Liv, I do care. I always have.” The sincerity in his eyes chills me. “You might have been the only one who didn’t see this coming. I’m sure that makes it harder for you.”
He speaks like it’s a business meeting, like my life is a business matter. No emotion, no truth of his words reflecting in his eyes.
“Maybe I did see it coming,” I say, and I hardly realise I’m speaking the thoughts creeping through my mind, “and I just didn’t want to believe it.”
Elbow planted on the spine of the couch, he rests his temple on his fist.
He considers me. “Is it really so bad?”
The look I throw at him is outraged, a glare of disbelief.
I stagger over thoughts to words.
Before I can say anything or even sputter out nonsense, he adds, “Dray is as eligible as one can get—excluding me, of course.” He doesn’t say it with flair, he just states a fact. In our world, he and Dray are on par with one another. “We have obligations, Liv. This is our world. Dray will give you everythingyou want, the life and the luxury you are accustomed to. You will still be a part of our family, you will have Serena by your side, and your mother-in-law will adore you, as she always has. That’s a good deal, Liv. Better than most get.”
“A good deal…” The echo hums through me. “Marrying my bully,” unlike Mother did, he doesn’t flinch, “is a… a good deal?”
