Page 153 of In Love and Revenge

‘The court sent him there!’ My terror at losing her makes me fire out the words like a missile.

Her eyes widen and she takes a step back. ‘Of course.’ She scoffs. ‘Shift the bloody blame. Maybe the court did convict him, but didn’t you ever question it with all that bloody training andexpertiseyou have?’ she sneers.

My body vibrates with the raw need to pull her to me and hold her in my arms, but she steps back, creating more distance between us.

‘I wasn’t shown all of the evidence. I was asked for my opinion on whether it was feasible. Not whether it was what actually happened. And yes, itwasfeasible. Please, Aurora. I love you. Let’s go home and talk about this.’

Her face falls. ‘You thought he was guilty. For months you thought he’d stolen all that money. You made all those snide remarks like he disgusted you.’

Self-loathing rears its ugly head as I see my behaviour through her eyes. I’m a bastard. A rude, judgemental prick. First thing in the morning I’m calling the judge and telling him my statement was biased. That I had a financial stake in the case. I’ll take whatever backlash there is from it.

My voice comes out hoarse. ‘I should never have spoken about him like that. I was wrong. I know he’s innocent now. And I’m so bloody sorry I didn’t see it sooner. You know that.’

Aurora shakes her head, my words doing nothing to quell the onslaught of pain and disappointment in her voice.

‘You don’t get it, do you? I was willing to move on and leave it behind us because I believed you when you said you were sorry. That you knew my father was innocent and that you cared about thetruth. But you wouldn’t even recognise the truth if it punched you in the face. You’re a liar. Everything we had was built on lies. Nothing was real.’

‘No! Everything is real. Iloveyou.’

She lifts her eyes to mine, and the brokenness in hers floors me.

‘Thisis how you treat someone you love? This is how you make them feel?’ Her voice wavers as tears fill her eyes. ‘I knew we were a mistake that first time you kissed me. I should have listened to my gut.’

My lungs seize and I struggle to breathe. ‘Please, Beauty, don’t say that. You and I are the one thing that makes sense to me in this world. I adore you. I will do anything for you. You know that deep down. Tell me you know that.’

She looks away, her arms wrapping tightly around herself as she trembles. ‘Never call me that again.’

I screw my face up, heat burning behind my eyelids. ‘Aurora?’ I croak, reaching for her.

She flinches, and I freeze.

‘My father’s a good man who was let down by a system that should have protected him. But you? You’re a man who thinks that because it’s a person’s heart you manipulated and no money was lost you’re somehow better than everyone else who’s ever made a mistake. But your choices were premeditated. You’ve spent all these months acting like you’re better than my father when, in reality, you’re the crook. You’ve lied to me. Manipulated me.’

I swallow the growing lump in my throat. What can I say to that? She’s right. I have lied to her. And in the beginning, Idid manipulate her. I didn’t consider her feelings for a moment. I only cared about myself. But now? Now she’s all I care about. She’s the one thing I’ve got right. Aurora Thorne isn’t the sleeping beauty I call her. I was the one who was blind to all of it. Until she awoke something inside me that makes me want to be a better man. Makes me want to be who she deserves.

‘I can make this right, I swear.’

The silence between us stretches for three heartbeats. Each pains me more than the last, until she parts her lips, and delivers four words that obliterate me.

‘Let me go, Rafe,’ she whispers.

I shake my head, a throbbing overtaking my skull. ‘Let you go? I can’t ... Aurora! I love you! What the hell does “let you go” mean?’

She can’t even meet my eyes.

A chill runs up my spine as my blood turns to ice.

‘No. Don’t do this,’ I beg. ‘I can make you happy. I know I can. Iloveyou,’ I say again, punctuating the words. ‘I bloody love you! And you love me. You have no idea how much that means! You love me too!’

She keeps her arms coiled around herself like a shield, keeping me out. Her face crumples, but she still won’t look at me.

‘What’s going on?’

I scowl at my sister’s voice, my gaze remaining fixed on Aurora’s pinched face.

‘This is between us!’ I snap.

‘When you make my best friend cry, then it’s no longer just between you!’ Dove says, marching past me and stopping in front of Aurora, who’s quietly wiping at her cheeks like she doesn’t want me to see her tears.