Page 116 of Milo

"No," I fume, shaking my head, angry tears on the verge of spilling. "You can all stay. I'll leave." I turn around, the pain from the shards of glass lodged in my feet incomparable to the pain in my stupid, naive heart. "I should've left long ago!"

I need to get out of here. I need to leave. I'm such an idiot. I can't believe I fell for him. I can't believe I let myself fall for him. This is what happens when you fall. You crash and burn and get your fucking heart broken. Smashed. Shattered. Stepped on and trampled.

"Kiara—" Milo jolts toward me, grabbing my hand. "Please, I can explain."

"Don't you dare touch me!" I yank my arm away, heading down the hallway to the staircase. "Leave me alone."

"No," Milo says, his tone raw, trembling as he follows behind me. "I will not."

"Go away.” I march up the stairs and into my bedroom. "I don't want to be near you. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to fucking look at you." I throw my high heels on my bed and walk to the closet, pulling out a suitcase.

"What are you doing, Kiara?" Milo runs a frantic hand through his hair as I scoop piles of clothes from my dresser and throw them into the luggage set. "Kiara, stop!"

"Fuck off." I scramble around the room looking for more shit to pack. "I'm leaving." A maniacal laugh spills from my lips as I shove shirts into the carry-on. "Seeing as I didn't actually kill Igor's cousin, I'll take my chances with the Russians. Maybe they'll spare me!"

"Kiara, please! Stop and listen to me for fuck's sake!" Milo takes two strides toward me and coils his fingers around my arm. "Look at me." I don't move. "Kiara!"

"No!" I clench my teeth. "I can't look at you." My hands ball up into fists. "It hurts too much to fucking look at you! You lied to me! He—he was dead. I swear he was dead. I shot him! I thought—" Tears roll down my face. "I thought I killed him. You lied to me! Why would you do that? Why wouldn't you tell me? Why?—"

"Kiara," Milo whispers, cupping my face as he tilts my head up. His thumb brushes away the tears, his touch so fucking soft, so delicate, so frustratingly tender. "I did not lie to you?—"

"What?" I seethe, smacking his arm away, my eyes expanding with dis-fucking-belief. "You didn't lie to me? How can you say that? I saw him, Milo! He's alive!"

"I never said that you killed him.” Regret flashes across his face. "I never?—"

I blink. "Seriously? You never said I killed him? What—" I shake my head, losing my fucking mind. "You also didn't tell me that he's alive or that you have him locked up, downstairs, in a fucking dungeon! He was here the whole time! That is so fucked up! You made me think I killed someone, Milo! That I took a life, that—" I pause. "Oh, my God. That police report you showed me, is it even real? Or was that just some sick way of making me feel better? Huh?"

"Of course, it is real," Milo says, almost like he's offended. That's rich. "Everything I told you about him is the truth."

"Except for the fact that he's alive," I snap, turning my attention back to packing the suitcase. "You're unbelievable." I drop the blouse from my hand, whipping my head toward him. "Why? Why didn't you tell me? No, not even why, but how? How the fuck is he alive? I shot him. I saw the bullet enter his chest! I saw him bleeding out in the fucking parking lot. How? And why is he downstairs? What the fuck, Milo?!"

"When you shot him, you did not kill him. He had a pulse, it was very faint," Milo explains in a hushed tone as my entire body buzzes with livid rage. "But he was going to die. He was minutes from death but?—"

"But what?"

"I was going to let him die.” He winces. "But I—I changed my mind. I decided that it would be better to save him, to use his knowledge in order to end this fucking war. And it worked, we are so close to winning, Kiara. It's almost over."

"So, you healed him just to torture him?" I ask, a bitter taste coating my tongue. "Milo, you made me think that I was a murderer. You—" I let out a shaky breath. "You saw how his death affected me and you still didn't tell me? Why? You said you trusted me, you said?—"

"I wanted to tell you, tesoro. I did but I was advised against it. You are not the only one who does not know. Only five people are aware that Andre is not dead. I couldn't risk it. I couldn't?—"

"Risk what? Who the fuck was I going to tell? I have no one to tell! You fucked up, Milo. You—you broke my trust. You broke us. I can't stay here. I can't be around you anymore. I need to leave."

The sharp edge of Milo's jaw twitches. "You are not leaving, Kiara!"

"Watch me!"

"No!" Milo grabs my shoulder, spinning me around. “You are not going anywhere, Kiara. You cannot leave me. You?—"

"Don't touch me!” I push on his chest. "You said you trusted me! That you cared about me! But you lied to me! You don't get to touch me anymore."

A blaze flickers in his dark irises. "I do care about you! I fucking love you!"

For a millisecond, the world stops, the gravity of his proclamation making my heart flutter with glee. But then the millisecond passes, and the glee morphs back into anger. A hurt, agonizing rage.

My jaw clenches as I slap Milo across the face.

"Love me? You love me?! Are you fucking kidding me? How can you say that? After all of this shit? If this is the way you show love, then I don't fucking want it! It doesn't change the fact that you lied to me!"

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