“You don’t get to control me.” Stepping backward, she shook her head. “All you are doing is… is managing me. Is that why you are so calm? You have another plan in motion? Like how you’ve known all along that I was writing?”
He locked his jaw, unwilling to give into her fanciful fit to argue with her. It was clear he had done all he could to help her, to protect her. Just because she couldn’t see it now didn’t mean she wouldn’t understand later. But it didn’t particularly matter to him if she never understood.
Tension radiated through the silence as Verity shook her head, pacing about while fumbling with her arms. She didn’t knowwhat to do with them. “You’ve been managing me all alone, haven’t you?”
“I haven’t led you in any direction. I told you I wouldn’t hamper your actions or desires,” he said slowly.
“And yet you’ve been keeping this from me. What else? To have this second article erupt as it did… What about the first? Why not the first? That was more inflammatory than the second with the suggestions I made. There’s no reason it didn’t blow up immediately. Unless.” She turned to him. “You did something. Didn’t you? What else are you keeping from me?”
He gazed at her and offered no answers.
The redness of her cheeks blossomed as it spread across her nose, her chin, and down her neck. Her hands balled into fists. “How dare you?”
Hopefully she didn’t notice the way his eye twitched.
For as calm as he sought to be, Dominic found that Verity had a way of getting under his skin. Maybe it was that piercing and accusatory stare. The way her anger commanded the room and held him captive.
He said nothing as she huffed and shook her head. “I cannot believe you. All this time, I thought I could trust you. I thought I could convince you to trust me. What a fool I was!
“But you. You’ve been deciding what I should know and controlling so much. As much as you claim to give me freedom, it doesn’t count if you’re there pulling the strings.”
Remembering the garden party and how she’d been near tears as the gossip fell upon her uncle, he said, “It was for your protection.”
“You stood beside me and watched me. How long have you known about my gossip rag? Is that why you married me, does that play apart? How could you let me keep moving forward without telling me all that you know?” Verity took a step forward, her gaze burning through his soul. “You still haven’t told me everything. Have you?”
“I have told you all that I can tell you.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He lifted his chin in defense. “It didn’t stop you from acting, particularly without considering the risks or the consequences. This was a direction you picked, remember? Your writing went too far. You interfered with something bigger than yourself. Something dangerous.”
Scoffing, she shook her head in refusal. He could see in her body language that she couldn’t accept her mistake. After all they had done in the past couple of days, he could hardly stand to see how she was clinging to her pride.
“I don’t care who you are.” Her voice shook. “You had no right to limit my choices. To decide what I can or cannot handle. Everyone else picked silence over the truth. You have the truth, and you have done nothing but let me pick a path and blame me for it. Where is your control now?”
Dominic stood sharply, his body jerking in anger, but he immediately caught himself. His wife had a way of probing his vulnerabilities. She was headstrong and daring, a dangerous trait.
Looking away, he tried to think straight. She was distracting in her anger. He needed to breathe before speaking to say, “There was a difference. I didn’t lie.”
After everything I did for her and she is still ungrateful and naïve. How could we have misunderstood one another?
“No, you just picked pieces of the truth to feed me when you thought it appropriate,” Verity cried out in frustration, throwing her hands in the air.
“The truth would cause too damage,” he argued loudly in turn. His patience was at an end. He was backed into a corner and couldn’t stand it, just as he couldn’t bear to have Verity blaming him for her own mistakes. “You aren’t ready to face it!”
She reared back, staring at him.
CHAPTER 32
“You are my husband, but you cannot control my life,” Verity said as she realized she was shouting.
It was a long time since she had raised her voice like this. Had she even ever shouted? Perhaps as a child, but not an adult. Most of the time she thought a conversation could take place like reasonable human beings. They were civilized, after all.
But I have never felt so uncivilized before.
Her chest heaved and she could feel her hair was coming undone. Truthfully, every part of her was coming undone. There was a shaking to her bones. And for some reason, every part of her wanted to touch him. Maybe she wanted to shake him. Hold him. Push him out a window. Kiss him.
“Verity,” Dominic started plaintively.
