Page 93 of Lies Like Love

I push her against the counter until her ass digs into the edge of the sink. Gripping her face, I force her to look me in the eyes. “Some things should remain history, Felicity.”

“Like us?” She’s pushing me into dangerous territory. Not that she’ll stop.

“You know I’m not talking about us.”

“Do I?” The bathroom walls might as well crack with the pain pinching her face. “What happened back then was never about you acting out like a stupid teenager, was it? Even if my grandparents told me you were sick and just wanted attention. They said you had some strange fixation with me and didn’t want us to be family. They said that’s why you did what you did—to split them up.”

I really hate her grandparents right now for telling her all this bullshit.

“I tried to tell myself you didn’t mean it.” Fel keeps going, out of breath. “That you were just trying to make them get a divorce because your dad was an asshole and the fact that they were married pissed you off. That, and the fact that my mom was never very nice to you. I tried to tell myself it all just went too far.”

Her version of the story is so much prettier than the truth. Wrong, but still pretty.

“When you never came back, it was easier to hate you. To believe what they told me was true. Because it didn’t matter. Either way, you left me alone.”

“It was for the best.” I step back, but she steps forward. My body, her magnet, refusing to let her go. “It got you away from them.”

“And I’m supposed to thank you for that?”

“Thank me. Hate me. Do whatever you want with that information. I got us both out of there before something happened no one could take back.”

“Because then I was safe right? You saved me?” She laughs—wild, loud, angry—before her eyes lock on mine. “You think you left, and all my problems were solved? Just because you walked away doesn’t mean nothing bad happened.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.”

“Felicity.” I grab her arm and pin her against the counter again. “What are you talking about? What happened after I left?”

What I did should have solved all her problems. I don’t like her insinuating it didn’t.

“My family was already sinking before our parents got married. But after my mom…” She cuts off on a choked breath, always unable to say it. “My grandparents had to be strategic.”

“Strategic how?”

“Connections. Acquaintances. It doesn’t matter.” She shakes her head. “You might think I’m naïve or blind, but I lived that life too, Jude. I know how they all work. They knew how to parade me around just enough for me to seem like an option. It was only a matter of time—”

“An option?” Blood crashes between my temples.

“I never gave any more than I was okay with.” She chews her lower lip, and I’m not sure what scares her more, my reaction or her own memories. “Why do you think I walked away after college and moved in with Maren? They were going to turn me into her.”

Don’t say it. Don’t say it.

She swallows hard. “I think they had someone picked out already, or at least, they were working on it. If it were up to them, I’d already be married, and I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

The thought of Fel married to anyone else makes my fingernails itch for blood. My knuckles desperate for pain. My throat tight. But to think of her being married off as a trophy to satisfy some rich fuck, so they can use him for his money evaporates all remaining traces of my sanity.

Still, for her, I try to collect myself. Because I’m so fucking proud she was strong enough to walk away.

“I didn’t expect it to lead me back to you.” It’s almost a whisper. “I hated you.”

“What was I supposed to do, Fel?”

“Stay.”

“Even if you told me to go?”

“Yes.”

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