Falco isn’t at breakfast either, so I choke down some toast quickly while avoiding Mom’s disappointed laments about the loss of the wedding of her dreams. You’d think she was the one getting married the way she talks, and I scour the estate until I find Falco in the gym working out with focus on his healing arm.
“Falco?” I approach slowly and tension bleeds through my gut. When he looks up, that same indecipherable look from last night remains in his eyes.
“Aerin.”
“What…what happened?”
His arm curls with a weight clasped in his hand. “With what?”
I walk closer and lower my voice. “With…last night? I had a great time, I thought you did too, but I woke up in my own bed and I… I don’t understand.”
“We talked.” Falco stares down at the weight. “You got tired and fell asleep. I carried you back to bed.”
Something’s wrong. The air around us lacks the normal warmth I’ve grown accustomed to, and the fact that he won’t look at me turns my stomach. “Falco. Look at me.”
“I’m busy.”
“Falco!” Surging forward, I shove his shoulder and he stumbles. “What the hell is going on?”
Finally he looks up. “I have to work on this. I can’t protect you with an arm that isn’t as strong as it needs to be.”
“I get that, but why wouldn’t you look at me? Why did you just…” I study his face, failing at my words, then I reach for him. “Something’s different.”
“Nothing is different.”
“Falco…” My fingertips brush his shoulder, but unlike last night he pulls away. I follow. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I’m fine. Don’t you have something with your mom today?”
“I… not until the afternoon. It’s just lunch. Why are you?” Heat builds behind my eyes, and a sudden chill sweeps through my gut as if the toast I’d eaten is fighting against me. “Why are you different?”
“I’m not.”
“You are!”
“Aerin, stop this.”
In a sudden urge to prove to him that he’s different and I’m not crazy, I surge up to kiss him, and Falco immediately pulls away. “See!” I snap. “What’s happened? What did I do?”
Falco drops the weight with a clatter and faces me with anger blazes in his eyes. “Aerin. I was hired to protect you. Not to want you. Not to love you. Do you understand? This…this stops now. I’ve pitied you enough. So if you don’t mind, I have work to do.”
Pitied?
He turns away to me and it’s like a block of ice has slammed into my entire body. I step back, speechless. It’s as if some kind of switch has flipped and some cold, indifferent monster has replaced the man I knew last night.
Did I wake up in an alternative reality?
The urge to push gets swallowed by a sudden crack of pain in my chest, and I stumble away from Falco, out of the gym, and all the way through the estate. My feet hurry with no real destination as I replay everything Falco said in my mind.
Something’s changed.
Does he not want me anymore? Was I only desirable when I was attached to another man? Did someone get to him?
My thoughts tumble together and the coldness in my gut continues to spread, along with a cramp that brings my steps to a halt.
“Aerin?” Mom’s voice drifts toward me and I glance up, finding myself in the conservatory and she’s walking in from the garden. “Darling, you look pale. Is everything alright?”
Tears flood my eyes, but before I can speak my knees wobble and the ground flies up to my face without a single warning.
