Page 18 of A Sinner's Virtue
“A few days ago. I’m sorry. I would have said something earlier…”
“It’s okay. How… Where… Do you know where he is right now?” I start clearing off my desk and packing up my things. I probably shouldn’t leave in the middle of a meeting, but I need to see him. I need to make sure he’s okay, and that he knows I had nothing to do with what happened to him.
“Hold on. Give me a minute.” Lucy grabs her phone and brings it to her ear, dialling out to someone. “Dom, where is Marcel right now?” she asks. I don’t hear the response, but I do see her roll her eyes. “Stop being so dramatic and just tell me where he is, Dominic McKinley.” She waits again and then she laughs. “Don’t do that. It’s not for me. Zoe wants to know.”
Don’t do what?
I’ve heard rumours about Dominic and just how psychotic he can be. All from Izzy, of course. And if that woman is telling me someone else is cray-cray, then I believe her. Because she’s probably the most lethal and ruthless person I’ve ever met. I think she’s even more terrifying than Mikhail. When you get on her bad side. Lucky for me, I’ve only ever seen the good parts of her directed my way.
“Okay, thanks. Love you,” Lucy cuts the call. “He’s on campus. Let’s go. I’ll take you there,” she offers.
“You don’t have to do that.” I feel bad enough that I’m leaving while we were in the middle of something.
“I know I don’t have to. I want to. It’s what friends do, Zoe. Besides, you don’t know your way around the uni.”
She’s right. I don’t know my way around that campus. I’ve never even been there. I’d never find him myself. So I follow Lucy outside and over to her car.
Lucy points to a building. “He’ll be coming out of there in about five minutes,” she says. “You want me to wait around with you?”
“No, it’s okay,” I tell her. It’d be better if she didn’t. He might not want to see me, and I don’t need anyone else to witness my embarrassment. I honestly wouldn’t blame him if he turned me away. He got hurt because of me.
“Okay. Call me if you need me for anything,” Lucy says.
“I will. Thank you.” I hug her before she leaves and then sit down on the bench and wait.
My eyes stay focused on the door Lucy pointed to. This would be the perfect place to people watch. There are students everywhere, but I stay hyperfocused on that door. My heart picks up when the door opens and a crowd starts piling out of the building.
Will I even be able to spot Marcel?
As soon as the question pops into my head, he appears. I mean, how could you not spot him? Besides the fact that the crowd literally parts for him when he walks through. Everyone giving him a wide berth.
Standing up, I lift my bag onto my shoulder, my fingers tight around the strap. That’s when his eyes connect with mine. He looks shocked for a split-second before he masks whatever he’s thinking.
My eyes burn with tears that want to fall. I know Lucy said he was beaten up, but seeing his face, covered in healing bruises and cuts, I just… I don’t like it. I fall back onto the bench. I shouldn’t have come here. If he got hurt like that because of me, then I should stay far away from him.
Marcel doesn’t drop his intense glare as he heads in my direction, stopping right in front of me. “You okay?” he asks, squatting down so that his face is level with mine.
“I came here to ask you that,” I tell him. My hand lifts, wanting to touch his face. I force myself to put it down.
“Why?”
“What happened?” I ask, instead of answering him.
“I ran into a door?” His response comes out as more of a question.
“No, you didn’t.”
“I didn’t. But I’m fine. This.” He points to his face. “Is nothing. I’ve had far worse.”
“I doubt that.”
“You didn’t know my father. Mean son of a bitch, he was,” Marcel tells me with a serious look on his face.
“We both must have struck out in the father department,” I say before I realise what I’ve admitted.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing. I, uh, I’m sorry about what happened. I didn’t know. I just thought you should know that. I didn’t tell anyone to do this. And if I’d known what they were going to do, I would have stopped it,” I say.
