Page 167 of Volatile Obsessions

Silence.

I didn’t know how to answer. It sounded so good in my head, all made perfect sense—how I’d so valiantly done it to protect her, but now that I heard it aloud, it sounded more daft than anything I’d ever heard in my life.

What was I really protecting her from?

“That’s what I thought,” she growled, wiping the moisture building in her eyes anew.

The sight of her so clearly distraught, so hurt… I couldn’t bear it, rushing toward her to pull her in my arms. “Baby, please, I swear to you…I never meant to keep it from you this long. It was just so—”

“Save it, Roman.” Her palm, firm and steady, hit my chest, holding me back. “I don’t wanna hear it. I don’t wanna hear none of it. We’re done.”

Those two little words… They immobilized me, rooting my feet to the ground. “What?”

“It’s. Over.” she enunciated, with finality nonetheless.

A finality that crippled me, like she’d ripped the soul she’d gifted me from body.

“Baby, don’t do this,” I pleaded, snatching her wrists in grasp.

“I didn’t do shit! This was all you!” She struggled, trying to wriggle herself free.

“You have to believe me, it wasn’t malicious! I just didn’t know how to tell you!”

“Lying is malicious, you bastard!” she hissed. “I hate you!”

And that right there was where I drew the line.

As marred as I was hearing those three words come out of her mouth, three words she’d told me countless times when we first met, I drew the line right there.

I refused to go down like this.

Refused to let us go down like this.

She was going to listen to me if it’s the last thing I did, even if I had to sit here all night and explain every detail down to the nitty gritty, like I should’ve done in the first place.

Like we both should’ve done…

“I’m not the only one who’s lied,” I said calmly, abruptly ending her struggle.

“What did you just say?” she asked.

“I know about you and Vic, too.”

Lux’s eyes widened, her face paling just slightly. “I...I…”

“I’m not mad,” I explained, pulling her into me. “I know why you didn’t tell me. Should you have at some point? Yes. But I get it, baby, I really do.”

Time stilled for a moment as we bore into one another. Me, hoping like hell this revelation would turn the tables around for the better.

And her...well, I couldn’t decipher it exactly.

She seemed astounded, and yet, incredulously enraged all in one shot.

It wasn’t until she scoffed profoundly and pushed me away once more that I realized this wasn’t going to change a thing.

“Just like that, huh?” she huffed. “Even after knowing what you know, you’re okay with it just like that?”

I shrugged, trying to remain as level-headed as possible. “You did what you had to do to survive.”

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