She nodded, stifling a cry. “I’ll break it off.”
“Good girl.”
“I never meant to hurt him, you know.”
“Sweetheart.” Luca palmed her cheek, giving her a pitying look. “I don’t give a fuck.”
Dizziness took over her as she wobbled inside the room. Her vision became white and spotty, and she collapsed onto a chair in front of his bed to stop herself from fainting.
She blinked into focus. Slowly, her vision returned, but she wished it hadn’t.
Achilles was no longer the gorgeous, chiseled boy with the shy composure and bottomless brown eyes.
He looked…terrifying.
His face was partly hidden by bandages, but whatever was visible was marred with red, swollen scars.
He was awake and alert, studying her reaction to him wordlessly. She wanted to cry, to beg for forgiveness, to run away.
She did none of those things. Just took his hand and brought it to her lips. Kissed it gently, scared to hurt him.
“Are you okay?” His voice was scratchy.
That was all it took for her tears to start falling. It was just like him to worry about her until the very end.
“Yes. Are you?”
His disfigured lips stretched into a smile. “Take a wild guess.”
She was going to break it off. To save him from her. And to save them both from Don Vello. Luca made it clear she’d never be accepted into the family.
“I started the fire.” Her chin vibrated. “I…I wanted to die.”
“You wanted to leave me?” he croaked.
She said nothing.
“Even though you knew it’d kill me?”
Silence.
“They say people who commit suicide are selfish.”
She’d heard that before, and she did not agree at all. If being altruistic meant suffering an agonizing existence every second of every minute of every day of every year for the rest of her life, then maybe self-sacrifice was overrated. She’d never meant harm to anyone but herself.
“I—I knew your father would never accept m?—”
“That’s for me to worry about, not you.”
She pursed her lips, staring down at her bare feet.
“You didn’t even tell your family we were together, Achilles.”
“You knew I’d save you.” He ignored her words.
“Yes.”
“And you still did it.”
