Page 98 of Tell Me Something True

But there was only silence.

Followed by a soft sigh.

She hadn’t walked away. She hadn’t left him.

He had to lock his knees so he didn’t slide back down to the floor in relief.

“I came here,” she said, “because I was… because I am… mad at you.”

He turned, eyebrows raised. “You’re hiding it well.”

“That’s because I’m not very good at it. At getting mad,” she clarified. “The way I grew up, it wasn’t safe to get angry. Lashing out meant someone was going to lash back. And they were always bigger and stronger than me. They were always angrier.”

I thought if I stayed still enough, silent enough, if I was small enough, no one would be able to reach me.

She’d had to make herself small, had to keep her emotions silent, so she wouldn’t be hurt.

Shaken to his core, sick to his stomach, he swallowed down the nausea rising in his throat.

If she could survive going through it, he could survive knowing she did.

“So I didn’t let myself get angry,” she said. “Or sad. I didn’t ask for anything. I just did my best to be whoever they wanted me to be.”

“I never asked you to play a part. I didn’t want you to be anyone other than who you really were.”

“Didn’t you?” she asked softly.

Frowning, he dropped his gaze.

He wanted to deny it. Wanted to tell her she was full of shit. That this was just more of her manipulation.

Another way she could try and shake some of the blame for what happened between them.

But he couldn’t.

Because part of him wondered if she was right.

“Me coming over here, ready and willing to confront you, is actually a big deal for me. And while I’m going to keep thinking it was incredibly brave of me—and another step in my personal growth and healing—I have to admit, if you’d been any other man, I don’t know if I would have been able to do it.”

“Guess I really pissed you off.”

Her smile was brief, a flash of warmth and humor. And agreement. “I met Ian’s mom a little bit ago. She’s the reason I’m here.”

“You’re here because of Katarina?”

He remembered Kat’s smug look at dinner. Her wanting to know more about Tabitha.

Knew how smart and savvy and cynical his nephew’s mother was.

How much she disliked him.

“I’m here because she shared a very interesting story with me. One about a family dinner where it seemed I was the topic of conversation.”

“Your name was brought up,” he conceded slowly. “But not by me. And I wouldn’t say you were the main topic of conversation.”

“Oh, I know you didn’t bring me up. Kat told me that was all Verity.”

“For someone who barely speaks when she’s around me and my brothers, Kat sure as hell seemed to have a lot to say to you.”

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