“You said it publicly.”
“Yes.”
“You said you were wrong.”
“Yes.”
She looks down. For a moment, she is very still. Then, quietly, “It doesn’t fix it.”
“No.”
“It doesn’t bring him back.”
“No.”
“It doesn’t make what you did smaller.”
“No.”
Her gaze returns to mine. “But it changes what happens next.”
“Yes.”
A twin moves. I see it clearly this time. A shift beneath her hand. Small. Absolute. Evie inhales. She looks at her stomach, then away, as if the tenderness is too private for the corridor.
“You chose,” she says.
“Yes.”
“You chose me?”
“Yes.”
“And them?”
“Yes.”
“Against him?”
“Yes.”
Her mouth tightens. My answers give her no clean comfort.
But clean comfort would be a lie.
And I don’t want anything here to be a lie again.
Chapter 34
After the Elimination
POV:Evie
“Take me to your room,” I finally tell Alessandro. “I think we need to go to bed, don’t you?”
Alessandro studies me for half a second, as if checking for any instability. He won’t find any. Whatever needed to fracture already did. What’s left is purely functional.
“As you wish.”
