She hoped to shock him, to shatter his icy composure, but he met her gaze evenly. He snapped his fingers, and the two slaves immediately left the room, closing the door behind them.
Silvanus turned back to her, an eyebrow arching. “Do you?”
She swallowed hard. This was it, the moment she’d lay it all out before her. Justice for Avitus—and for her son—was within her grasp. “You murdered the man who loved you.”
“Loved!” He scoffed. “Avitus didn’t love me. He only valued me for what I could do for him. I was a good secretary and a better fuck. Or maybe it was the other way around.”
His crudeness made her lips tighten. “Why did you do it?”
“Do you even have to ask?” He made an expansive gesture at the room around them. “I was born in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a life of labor and hardship in front of me. I wasn’t brave or strong, and I was useless with a sword, so I couldn’t seek glory in the army. But I was determined, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do if it got me out of that village. I worked my way up until I got that position on your husband’s staff. I thought that was as high as I could climb. Being the secretary to the governor of a wealthy province is a position of influence. Especially after he took more of a…personal…interest in me, I thought I had it made.”
“I was right about you,” Volusia said through gritted teeth. “At the beginning I thought all you wanted with Avitus was his position.” She had allowed Silvanus’s façade of meekness and humility to fool her, to lull her into overlooking his ambition. How could she have been so stupid?
He ignored her. “After we got to Narbo, Avitus started noticing things he wasn’t meant to. Accounts not adding up, missing tax revenue, that sort of thing. We both realized Petronax was stealing from the province. I tried to warn Avitus away from pursuing it. I knew making an enemy of Petronax could jeopardize everything. Avitus would have profited from the scheme as well. But he was stubborn.”
“He was doing the right thing,” Volusia said. “He was a man of honor. Unlike yourself.”
Silvanus shrugged. “Well, one of us is in a grand house with ten slaves to wait on his every need, and the other one of us is nothing but ashes in an urn.”
Volusia flinched.
“He kept poking at it,” Silvanus continued. “And I realized I was chained to a sinking ship. I started to make plans to leave, but then one of Petronax’s men approached me. He offered money in exchange for poisoning Avitus. Of course I negotiated the price up as much as I could. I had nothing to lose—I knew that if I refused, I’d have disappeared within the week because of what I knew, and someone else would have done away with Avitus anyway. So yes, I did it. I had no choice, but now I have enough coin to buy a magistracy in the next election. From there, who knows?”
Volusia drew in a breath as she absorbed everything Silvanus had said. That must have been how Petronax came to know of her suspicions. The only person she’d told was Silvanus, and he must have relayed it to Petronax, who had ordered Glabrio to silence her.
One last question occurred to her. “W-Why are you telling me this?” He had, after all, just confessed to murder. Her breathing stuttered as the danger of her situation washed over her. Max wasn’t here yet. She had no one to protect her. Her litter-bearers were outside—but due to her lie, Silvanus thought she’d sent them away on another errand. She could scream, but no one would hear her.
He fixed her with a steady, cool stare. “Because you sealed your own fate the moment that accusation left your lips, Volusia. If you think I’m going to let a stubborn little widow ruin everything I’ve built for myself…” His hand closed around the handle of a dinner knife.
Volusia had started gathering her legs under her as soon as he’d begun speaking. Her muscles tensed, and she made to bolt for the door.
But Silvanus anticipated her movement. He lunged toward her, the knife outstretched, pointing straight at her throat.
She scrambled backward, still on the low dining couch. Her foot kicked out, making contact with Silvanus’s chest. The force thrust him back for a moment, long enough for her to sweep an arm over the dining table, sending plates, cutlery, and cups crashing over the couch between them. Glass and pottery shattered as it hit the floor, and metal platters clanged, the noise deafening. She hoped desperately that the cacophony would alert someone—but then again, she was in Silvanus’s house, and his servants wouldn’t dare interfere.
The cascade of dinnerware stymied Silvanus for only a moment, and Volusia couldn’t find her feet fast enough. Silvanus lunged at her once more. Volusia twisted desperately. The knife sank into the cushion of the couch next to her ear. Silvanus swore.
His body had landed half over hers, his weight stifling even though he was not a large man. Volusia jerked her knee up and caught him in the stomach. She grasped for the knife, yanking it out of the couch. Silvanus grabbed her wrist. Instead of letting him take the knife from her, she flung it wide. It clattered away, out of reach for both of them.
“You are determined to make things difficult for yourself, aren’t you?” he growled. His hands closed around her throat.
Panic seized her. She writhed and twisted, tearing at any part of him she could reach with her nails. But the pressure didn’t ease. She wheezed, frantically seeking any scrap of air.
Relief didn’t come. Black spots popped in her vision. She was going to die like this. Her son would be an orphan, and Max…Max would never know how much she loved him. His face was the last thing she saw as darkness swallowed her.
Chapter 27
MaxreturnedtoRomein the early afternoon. He rubbed Elephant down and saw her safely returned to a cozy stable stall, then headed home. He planned to grab some lunch and then head to the baths to wash away the grime from his travel.
As he was going to the kitchen to see what could be rustled up for lunch, Paris came to find him. “Sir, there’s a messenger for you in the atrium. Says he has a message from the lady Volusia.”
Max’s interest piqued. “Thanks. I’ll see what it is.” He turned away from the kitchen and went to the atrium.
A broad-shouldered man waited, hands clasped in front of him. Max thought he recognized him as one of Volusia’s litter-bearers. “You have a message for me from Volusia?”
The man nodded. “Yes, sir. She said it was urgent. She said to tell you ‘Silvanus did it.’ And she asked you to meet her at his house, right away.”
Max frowned. “His house? You mean—”
