“Don’t get any closer, Dr. Keller,” Logan whispered. He’d let go of Chloe and was approaching his brother at a slow pace. Neil didn’t move a muscle. His breathing was shallow, his eyes devoid of emotion, and his face a mask of rage and incredulity.
Time continued to pass, but the rest of us had stopped.
Tick…tock…tick…tock…
Only the sound of the grandfather clock’s pendulum swinging back and forth filled the room.
After what felt like an eternity, Neil turned his icy stare on Mia and blinked, the only sign of life he’d shown thus far.
“Neil, I can explain what happened,” his mother murmured through her tears, stepping hesitantly toward him. I could sense her fear from where I stood, but I admired the courage she had, facing him like that. “I was afraid of losing you; that’s why I never told you. That’s why…you have to believeme…” Neil remained frozen, staring at her, his hands tightened into fists. His eyes had become unrecognizable, two murky pools of hatred.
“You…you’re…” he said in a low voice, as though it were a struggle to get the words out, as though there was something heavy bearing down on his chest or his throat. Then, abruptly, he shot out an arm to push his mother violently away. “A whore!” he shouted furiously. He clenched his jaw and ground his teeth together while Mia lost her footing and fell to the floor. John’s eyes went wide as he moved to help her up, Chloe clutched Logan fearfully, and my father watched the whole scene unfold in shock.
Mia began to weep, and Neil just looked at her without so much as a flicker of human compassion on his face.
My heart began to beat frenetically, pulsing in my throat before falling back into my chest like I was on a roller coaster. I couldn’t speak.
Mechanically, I turned my eyes to John, where he was helping Mia up.
I had never seen her look so destroyed, so grief-stricken.
All at once, it felt like there was a fire blazing all over me, and I turned to find Neil staring at me. I blinked, tears clinging to my eyelashes, and I tried to understand what he was thinking. He moved to me, his footsteps sure. Then he stopped and scrutinized me carefully.
I wanted to run away, but I was so shaken by everything that I couldn’t move.
His hot breath hit my cheek.
He touched me gently, tracing the line of my jaw with his index finger. What was he trying to say to me?
The suffering in his eyes tore my chest open.
I could have offered him comfort. Maybe he was looking for me to have to his back, to support him, but I couldn’t bring myself to lie to him. And that was when I made my fatal error.
“I knew…” I admitted, trying not to burst into tears. Neil stopped touching me, his eyebrows flying upward in surprise. “I knew,” I repeated guiltily. The blood drained from his face while he fought to keep his anger under his control and waited for me to go on. “I overheard a conversation between Mia and John at the clinic. You were busy talking to Dr. Lively. I wanted to tell you about it, but I didn’t know anything for sure…” I exhaledforcefully. “I had suspicions but no proof, and I didn’t want to freak you out for nothing. I’m sorry…I—” I didn’t even get to finish my useless attempt at a justification before I watched him pulling away from me. I saw it all over his face as he growled in frustration and dragged his hands through his hair. “Please, forgive me…” I begged.
Neil looked at me, his pupils blown, and I gasped.
There was nothing to be seen in those eyes.
Not him, not me, not everything we had been building together.
The only things I saw in there were sharp edges and jagged points, and they stabbed into me. He gave me a disgusted look, and then he turned his back on me, not just with his body, but with all that he was.
He shook his head dazedly and stared at John, full of fury.
“The legend of the pearl…all that bullshit you were constantly telling me…” he began. His voice was thin and sharp as a needle. “You approached me with the sole purpose of getting to know me without telling me who you really were. You got me to talk to you. You got me to confide in you about my history. But you weren’t a doctor who wanted to help me. You were a filthy fucking liar who was trying to gain my trust with his lies…” he spoke in a low mutter, breathing erratically. John tried to answer him, but Neil held up a hand to stop him. “I will not forgive you. Never. Not you and not your whore.”
His eyes were alight with hate, his voice deep and colored with a rage that he still tried to fight, though I could see it rising up, wreathed in flames to drag him back into hell.
Neil had gone through so much in his life. No matter how much fate tested him and tried to destroy and demolish him, he had come out victorious. He managed to stay standing, even when he had to carry a burden that would have crushed another man.
But now the shadows seemed to close in around him like a long black cloak.
“Please let me explain—” John began, but he didn’t get to finish before Neil turned to the table.
With a bone-rattling howl, he grabbed the edge of the table and flipped it over.
“Get out! Leave! All of you!” he thundered. He tore his jacket off wrathfully, as though it had been choking him, and hurled it to the ground. Then he began to grab bottles, crystal glassware, plates—whatever he could get—and hurled them against the wall.
