Page 75 of Midnight Whispers

Steeling myself against what I feel for her, I turn back to Cinder. “I don’t have anything to say to you either.”

Her back hunches, and she breaks down in tears. I force myself to walk out the door, even though the urge to comfort her swells inside me like a tidal wave.

Half a bottle of whiskey later, I’m still plagued by anger and pain, but the knife’s edge has dulled, and it feels more tolerable at least.

I’m sitting on the same chaise in the aviary that Cinder and I made love on. At least, that’s what I thought we were doing. Maybe that was all a lie too.

Attempting to put all my thoughts in order is proving more difficult due to the haze of the alcohol. I wonder again if it was indeed Asher who sent me that photo of Maude and the other guy. Cinder clearly hates her family, so she looks like suspect number one now. A great way to get back at her stepmother and stepsister. But that would mean she knew who I was before we started what we have. This entire time I’ve housed her, she was pretending to love me. Could I be that stupid, to be fooled by a woman twice in a year?

I set the bottle on the table beside the chaise just as the door behind me opens. I don’t need to turn around to know who it is. I knew Cinder would come looking for me.

“What do you want?” I ask without turning around.

She steps into view. It’s obvious from how red and swollen her eyes are that she’s been crying since I left her hours ago.

Even the birds quiet down as if they’re waiting for her excuses, too.

“I want to explain.”

My eyes close for a moment because I hate hearing the pain in her voice. It makes me want to pull her into my lap and tell her that everything will be okay. But it won’t be. She lied to me, and now I can’t trust her.

“Sure, can’t wait to hear this,” I say.

She comes around to stand in front of me, and I motion for her to sit in the chair to the side of me, so I don’t have to look at her head-on. I don’t trust myself to be strong enough to push her away.

“Nero, you have to know that I wanted to tell you. I really did.”

A caustic laugh leaves my lips. “Then why didn’t you?”

“I was afraid of what you’d think.”

“And what’s that?” I turn to meet her gaze because I want to see for myself whether she’s telling the truth or not. Of course, I couldn’t tell that she’s been lying to me this entire time so what do I know?

“That you would think my feelings for you weren’t real.” She holds my gaze until I’m the one who looks away.

I don’t want to talk about feelings. I want answers.

“I blamed Asher for sending me the picture of Maude and another guy.” I side-glance at her as her chin falls to her chest. “He denied it, but I figured he was lying.”

Still she says nothing.

“After my anger wore off, I figured he did me a favor. And then I was drinking away the blues, so I wasn’t thinking clearly, and I saw you for the first time. And you became all I could think about.”

“Nero—”

I don’t allow her to interrupt me, especially since my gut was correct. “You know I’ve been giving this some thought. I bet if I went back and did some digging, the picture came from you.” I turn to look at her, arching an eyebrow.

She bursts into tears, burying her face in her hands. “Yes. I sent it.” She cries for another minute and eventually pulls her shit together enough to wipe the tears from her face and look at me. “There’s something you don’t know.”

“Oh, great. What?” I roll my eyes and blow out a breath of frustration.

“The night of the ball. I… was there.”

My memories travel back to that night, but I don’t remember seeing her. I for sure would have clicked with her. It was the night I proposed and had Asher… oh… fuck no. “We danced.”

She nods.

“That guy was all over you, and I pretended to be…” It all comes back.

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