Page 119 of Queen of Nothing

It’s as though he’s more… severe.

The silence holds.

No one answers for him.

And even Asta glances up from her plate, shifting her stare from face to face, looking for a cue.

“I would hope for three children,” Dray says, lowering the fork—and the challenge in his stare is his old self, stirring in my presence. “But that might require an even larger aircraft.”

Amelia chimes in with a nervous laugh, “Oh, certainly. Between the children and the nursemaids and the nannies, perhaps we will need an entire fleet.”

No one laughs.

No one smiles.

But everyone watches me.

Because my question wasn’t answered. The whole topic of Dray’s marriage has been dodged.

I look at his hand on the table—but it isn’t his left hand, and so I can’t check for a ring.

He fixes the napkin on his lap with his left hand.

Asta clears her throat—

And that flings my gaze to her.

She reaches for her water.

And I don’t know why, but rage burns in me at the sight of her.

In my home.

At my table.

Sitting in a higher seat than my own.

A chill runs down my spine.

I gesture my knife improperly between Asta and Oliver. “When did you marry?”

Oliver stills.

The wine glass in his hand hovers at his chin, and he cuts his gaze aside to me. It’s a green wall—a barricade thrown at me.

He sets his glass on the table. “After graduation.”

Asta keeps her head down.

I arch a brow. “So soon.”

Just months after Serena and I left.

We ran in February, a couple of weeks before the aristos birthday season, which is just three weeks of birthdays back-to-back, since all the aristos marry in the same month.

That means Oliver married Asta just five months after Serena ran.

The storm darkens inside of me.