“Let him go.”
Lan freezes and glances back at me as if he’s confused. “Let him?—”
“Go. Yes. Let him go. Before I kill him.”
Lan reluctantly drops Ayan, who scrambles away.
“Fuck you both.” Ayan pauses in the doorway as the crowd and music die to a chilly silence. “Thesecondshe’s alone? I’m ripping her away from you, Griffin.”
Aiden Cardell’s fingers point toward the doorway. That’s it. No fancy fanfare. Evaporating out of the atmosphere, fourThetassurround Ayan and escort him out the front door.
I toss him a look of gratitude while gripping my wife’s hand. With a hurry in my step, I lead us to the downstairs bathroom and lock the door.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, but we need to play itcool. Especially right now?—”
I grab her and hold her to my chest. “I know. I know…”
But even as I take a breath of relief, my phone buzzes in my pocket. When I pull it out, it takes me a second to process what I’m reading.
My heart sinks.
The president wants to see me on Monday…
thirty-eight
Sunday passes in fragments.Family dinner. Greek life meetings.
Avoiding our apartment.
And leaving thewellnessbracelets on the dresser.
The air smells like incoming spring rain on the first Monday in February. But the sky looks like it’s about to fuck us over with more cold wind.
Coat up to my ears, I stroll toward the president’s house on the east side of campus. A fewDeltasspot me and nod with silent respect. Prior to my appointment, I would’ve felt like I had to put on a face of righteous anger. A perfect representation of the lion of vengeance that our House god demands.
In the past, I would’ve been dying inside. One wrong move and the whole thing would crack. Everyone would know I was a fraud.
But with Scout by my side? I feel as if I cansucceed. The way she looks at me with such awe and veneration fills me with hope.
Maybe I can become someone.
And not just the guy who takes her down with me.
Instead of a hesitant step and a gut filled with lead as I approach the double doors of the white-columned manor, I smile. Mainly to myself. But also to the boy that had to hide inside a huge body. Begging to not get called on in class so that no one would hear me unable to read. The one good at sports. The one with the dimpled grin. Not charm like Nico. Not brilliance like Leo. Not Atlas’s effortless laughter.
I’ll never forget the looks of dismay my teachers wouldgive me, being the fourth brother in succession. The faded hope when I failed my first test. A glaring disappointment.
So I wouldsurgeforward and become the best at everything else. If the class needed a monitor? I was there. Extra pencils for the exam? I’m your guy. Tell the girls talking in the back row to settle down? I could do it…and they’d listen.
What Icouldn’tdo was the actual task at hand. But I was passed anyway.
And I’m going to pass today.
Iknowit.
“Come in, Mr. Griffin.” President Damon is in another purple skirt suit. Amethyst brooch gleaming in the low lamplight on her desk. She nods at the two enforcers by the doors, and they exit until it’s only she and I in the room. That’s…unusual.
