Liza nods, her shoulders sagging. It’s strange—there’s no fight left in her. It’s like she’s just given up. This isn’t the headstrong, bossy Liza who raised me.
“Good.”
I turn toward the door.
“Thea.”
I pause, not looking back.
“What?”
A sigh. “I really am sorry,” she whispers, “for everything. I know I can’t fix what I did. But I need you to know that I never stopped caring about you, even after you left.”
“If you really cared,” I say softly, “you wouldn’t have abandoned me.”
I leave before she can respond.
I find Oscar in the hallway.
“Oscar, can you make sure she has everything she needs? Uniforms, supplies, a schedule.”
He nods slightly. “That is all part of my duties. Don’t you worry, Miss Thea, I’ll ensure that her onboarding is a smooth process.”
“Thank you. And Oscar?”
“Si?”
“Please make sure that she doesn’t come near Gabriel’s wing or my room.”
He nods, understanding.
With that, I head back upstairs, my mind spinning.
Gabriel brought Liza here.
The nausea hits again. This time, I barely make it to the bathroom before I’m retching in the toilet.
When it passes, I sit on the cold tile floor with my back against the wall and try to make sense of my life, and what the hell is going on with me.
But I can’t. Because nothing makes sense anymore. I don’t know who I am, what I want, or what I’m becoming in this house.
And I still feel as if I barely know the man I’m falling for despite every instinct screaming one word:
Run.
CHAPTER 20
GABRIEL
She’s been avoiding me for three days.
She still sleeps in my bed, curled against me in the dark, her breathing soft and even. But she’s up before me, showered, and hard at work by the time my alarm goes off. Throughout the day, she’s distant, polite, careful.
Like I’m an enemy to whom she’s decided to be civil.
I’m in the library, reviewing contracts for a shipping deal. It should have my full attention. But it doesn’t, for the simple reason that Thea is there with me, sitting cross-legged on the floor, a stack of books beside her.
She’s been in here for hours, before I entered. Her choice of books interests me—one about ancient Rome and Greece, another on Mesopotamian archaeology. She’s totally focused on the text, only stopping to make notes in her notebook or take a sip of her tea.
