Raph went very still. “You would dare to take Pamela from me?”
“I would save her from you,” she said mercilessly. “And from the choices you are making tonight.”
He stalked over to her and trapped her in the chair. Towering over her until she looked up with a daring expression. “You cannot and will not leave this family,” he commanded.
“But you can?” she fired back. “Tell me, Raph. When you look at Pamela, can you truly say that vengeance is more important than letting her hear, just once, that you love her?”
His breath caught as he struggled to keep his thoughts at bay.
“I have made up my mind, Camelia.”
Camelia grabbed the bottom of his shirt. “Raph, you did not see her earlier. You did not see the fear in her eyes when she said that you’re ashamed of her. You did not hear her sobs. I did, and I know that all you have to do is run to her and not to Montague.”
“Montague does not deserve to live,” he said simply.
Camelia’s eyes welled with tears, but she did not blink. “Suppose you succeed, Raph. Can you truly ride away tomorrow, knowing that you never told Pamela who her real father is after murdering him? Is thereanythinghere worth staying for?”
Silence roared between them.
Raph’s hands opened and closed at his sides. He reached out and lifted her chin, gazing down at her. He had to remain cold for their sake.
“Montague needs to be stopped before he ruins us.” He let go of her, leaving no room for argument.
The chair scraped noisily against the floor as she got up. “Raph, it’s either the duel or us. Vengeance or the family that needs you alive. There is no third option.”
She turned towards the door, but he reached her in two strides, holding it shut before she could escape.
“Do not question my decisions and make me choose between you and duty. If I do not end this, Montague will come for more.”
“Then we end it together, the right way,” she insisted. “But if you choose his blood over ours, you will do it alone. And you will come home to an empty house.”
“So be it,” he responded coldly.
“So be it,” she repeated mockingly.
Raph slowly lowered his hand from the door. Camelia wasted no time; she opened it and stormed out, leaving him standing alone with his thoughts and decisions.
The faint taste of gunpowder was already on his tongue, and for the first time in sixteen years, he felt the ground shift beneath the certainty he had lived by.
Choose. The duel or them.
By dawn, Raph would have to decide whose ghost he was willing to carry for the rest of his life.
CHAPTER 31
“Raph!” Camelia screamed from her window, but the carriage had already rolled through the gate and out of sight.
The crunch of gravel under its iron-rimmed wheels had wrenched her from the edge of a restless sleep. She had left Pamela’s chamber about an hour ago and must have fallen asleep.
Tears streamed down her face when she realized that Raph had made his decision. Before the first cock crowed, before the sky had even paled, he had chosen the duel.
The thought of losing him shattered her heart into a million little pieces.
She stumbled away from the window and decided to take Pamela and leave while the house still slept. They would go to Lempster Estate, whether Raph liked it or not.
Her hand shook as she packed her essentials. The bed was cold and empty without him, and if Lord Montague won the duel, she imagined that her life would be the same.
She ignored the sudden void in her chest and went to the small writing desk by the window. She pulled out fresh parchment, uncorked the inkpot with clumsy fingers, dipped her quill into it, and began to write a letter to her sisters.
