Page 148 of Violet

“Five minutes,” he asks quietly. “Please.”

“And then you’ll go?” Iris stares at him as he stares at me.

“Yes.”

“Vi?” She glances at me for approval.

I think it over. I want to say no. The word forms in my mouth, but when my lips move, “Yes” comes out.

“Five minutes,” Iris warns. “Clock running. Door open.”

The moment Iris is gone, Stephan closes in on me, and I’m melting, I hate myself for it, but I melt. “Step back.”

“You don’t want that.”

I close my eyes, harden everything I can. Then I open them and look right up at him. “I do.”

For a moment I don’t think he’s going to, but he does, and then he sags against a bookshelf.

“I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. I got you flowers. I’ve brought gifts. Tell me what you want me to do to make up for this. I’ll do it. I’ll?—”

“I want you to turn the clock back and undo what you did. Can you do that?”

“You know I can’t. Look, Princess?—”

“Violet.”

“Violet.” He sucks in a breath. “I don’t—can’tlose you. You want a big family, so yes, I took matters into my own hands so you’d be okay. I should have talked?—”

“You should have,” I say. “I didn’t want kids right away.”

“An Omega? Conditioned to be the perfect mate? What else should I think?”

“Nothing. You should have spoken to me, asked.” Fury moves like a gale through the shattered landscape of me. “If I wasn’t even worth the conversation to you, then I don’t want you.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do.” I say this quietly, but it’s thetruth.

Gifts? Flowers? That’s not him admitting wrongdoing. It’s not love and it’s not an apology. It’s excuses and laziness.

He’s not sorry for what he did. He’s sorry he got caught, sorry I don’t see his reasons for doing it as valid.

Stephan doesn’t see me as anything other than a poor substitute for the dead.

And that hurts.

“You don’t need the full five minutes. Take your gifts, your flowers, and go. It’s over.”

And with that, I turn and leave the room. I want him to come after me, I do.

But he doesn’t.

This relationship, this mate bond, has been exposed as nothing more than lies. So I just keep walking.

CHAPTER

FORTY-TWO

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