Page 119 of Possession

I hesitate, my pulse spiking just slightly.

“That’s a strong promise,” I say carefully.

“I mean it.”

“Forgive me if I don’t exactly trust your word these days.”

She lets out a slow breath. “I know. I don’t blame you for that. But I have an ally now—Gabriel.”

I roll my eyes. “Oh, so now you’re using your brand-new mafia husband as proof that I should trust you?”

“He’s not just my husband,” Naomi insists. “He knows how much I’ve missed our friendship, and he encouraged me to try again with you.”

That stops me for a second.

Gabriel encouraged her?

I don’t know much about him—only that he was forced into a marriage he didn’t want just as much as Naomi was––that he’s ruthless when it comes to protecting his family name.

And now, suddenly, he’s invested in Naomi and me making amends?

“What’s in it for him?” I ask skeptically.

“Nothing,” she says quickly. Too quickly. She’s hiding something.

I narrow my eyes. “I don’t believe that for a second.”

Naomi sighs. “He sees the toll my father has taken on me. He knows how much I regret what happened between us.”

“Does he also know that you stood by while your father held me hostage?”

Her sharp inhale tells me that cut deep.

I don’t regret saying it.

I refuse to let her gloss over what happened to me—what she allowed to happen.

“I think about that moment every single day,” she whispers.

I don’t answer.

I don’t give her the comfort of pretending it’s okay.

Because it’s not.

She clears her throat, shifting gears. “Gabriel wants me to be stronger, Megan. He wants me to stop being my father’s puppet.”

“That’s great,” I say, flat and emotionless. “Do that. But it doesn’t mean we can just go back to how things were.”

“I’m not expecting that.”

“Good.”

She hesitates. “But I’d like for us to try. I’d love to meet your son.”

A silence stretches between us.

I glance out the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of my new studio, sunlight casting long golden shadows across the unfinished canvas in front of me.

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