His voice cracked the air. She startled.
Theo stepped forward, too fast. The blood on his knuckles had begun to dry, but the violence still clung to him like smoke. “Wait. Please.”
She took another step back, her skirts brushing the cold stone wall.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. Too sharp. Too raw. The heat of what he had just been doing still clung to his voice.
She flinched.
The moment struck him—his face changed. The fury fell away, replaced by something like regret. His shoulders slackened, his hands unclenched.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I just—April, you shouldn’t have seen?—”
“What exactly did I see?” she cut in, her voice shaking. “A man tied up. Bleeding. And you… you hitting him. Over and over.”
“It’s not what you think.”
She let out a short, incredulous laugh. “Then enlighten me. Because what I saw was—was monstrous.”
His eyes narrowed but not in anger. In frustration. “You don’t understand.”
“Then help me. Help me understand, Theo. Who was that man? Why was he there? Why were you?—?”
He stepped forward again, and she moved back.
“It’s complicated. I’m handling it.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He looked away for a moment, jaw tight, before muttering, “He’s dangerous. He’s part of something. Something that took everything from me.”
She froze.
“What do you mean, ‘took everything’?”
“I’m dealing with it. That’s all you need to know.”
Her stomach dropped. That was all she needed to know?
Her voice rose, soft but edged with despair. “And what happens when you’re finished dealing with him? When you’ve bled out all your rage—then what?”
His jaw clenched tighter. “Then I’ll have justice.”
April stared at him. The man before her looked nothing like the one she’d sat beside at tea. The man who smiled—not quite—and passed her quiet kindness with sugarless tea.
This was someone else. And yet… it was still him. Still Theo. And that was what terrified her.
Her hands trembled. She pressed them to her sides, fingers curling into the fabric of her dress. Tears clawed at her throat.
“And what about me?” she asked, her voice raw. “If this is who you are underneath the silence and the control, what happens to me?”
He said nothing.
The silence roared between them.
She waited. One heartbeat. Two.
And then she stepped back once more. Her chin lifted.
