Page 77 of Goldrage
“Need some onions?” Valentine asks softly, and the inside joke undoes me. The rage that had been sustainingme crumbles into devastation. Valentine pulls me against his solid chest as I collapse, sobbing with the full force of my grief and fury and helplessness.
Valentine’s arms close around me carefully, as if I might shatter at any moment. He doesn’t try to quiet my tears or offer empty words, he simply holds me while I fall apart. I’m brought back to when I was a little girl and he was always there to comfort me. His betrayal still cuts deep, but right now, he’s here.
Whether he’ll still be on my side in the future, I don’t know. But right now…
After a while, I pull back to look at Valentine through puffy eyes. “I need to see Adrian. I need to tell him what I found. He needs to know the truth.” My heart breaks at having to tell him something like this, that he was violated, but it shouldn’t be kept a secret.
Valentine sighs heavily, running a hand through his graying hair. “It’s getting dangerous, arranging these meetings. The security staff is already asking questions about patrol rotations, and if Julian or Lady Harrow starts connecting the dots...”
“I know. But he deserves to know the truth. I need to see him. And… he needs to prepare for if Bianca actually gets pregnant.”Please God, don’t let it take.If Bianca is pregnant, it’ll complicate everything too much.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Valentine says. “But it might take a few days to set up something that won’t raise suspicions.” He gently extracts the wig from my death grip, examining it with disgust. “I’ll return this to her room. She can’t know you found it.”
I want to show Adrian the wig, but I understand. It’sbetter not to alert Lady Harrow or Bianca that we know. Adrian will just have to trust my words.
As we prepare to leave the study, I catch Valentine’s arm. “I… I appreciate everything you’re doing. But it doesn’t mean I forgive you.”
Valentine’s face falls, but he nods. “I know. I don’t expect forgiveness. I don’t deserve it.”
“But… thank you. We couldn’t do this without you. I can’t forgive yet because it still hurts too much, but… someday. Someday I want to get to that point. I want to give you a second chance.”
Valentine’s smile is watery but genuine, hope flickering in his eyes. “Someday is more than I have any right to ask for. I’ll earn it. However long it takes, I’ll earn your forgiveness. I love you.”
I actually believe him. And… he’s still my father. Down beyond the pain, I still love him back.
We leave the study separately, Valentine heading toward Bianca’s room while I retreat toward the library. But the rage still burns inside my chest like a coal, and I know that when I finally see Bianca again—when I’m forced to watch that lying bitch touch Adrian with hands that violated him—it will take every ounce of self-control I possess not to tear the woman apart.
CHAPTER THIRTY
AURELIA
The day after finding the wig, I pace my room, back and forth, my mind spinning with an ever-growing list of catastrophes waiting to happen. The conversation with Valentine had helped drain some of my murderous rage toward Bianca, but it didn’t ease the crushing anxiety about everything else hanging in the balance.
Ten days. That’s how long I have before the doctor returns to draw blood for another round of tests. Lorenzo had managed to contact Gideon, who’d warned us that making the equipment “malfunction” twice might raise suspicions. He’s working on creating some emergency that will force the doctor to leave the state, but if that fails, we’ll have to let the test happen and just manipulate the results.
Which brings me to an impossible choice. Gideon says I have to decide whose name should appear on those results. Because if the doctor ends up drawing my blood, Gideon will have to list the father. My heartscreams Adrian’s name; I want the world to know that any child I carry would be his.
But I need to think strategically. If the results showed Adrian as the father, would Julian’s jealousy and rage make him even more unstable? Would he lash out at Adrian, at me, at everyone around him in a fit of possessive fury? And Lady Harrow would also prefer it to be Julian’s child… though maybe she doesn’t want any child to threaten her position right now. She knows I’ll fight, so maybe that’s why she’s trying to get Bianca pregnant, even if it’s with Adrian’s child. She wants someone she can manipulate better. And she could also lord Adrian’s child over him.
Ugh.I have no idea what’s going through Lady Harrow’s mind right now. It all feels like a gamble. The woman was clearly unhinged enough to plan Adrian’s assault, so what other horrors might she unleash if she thought her plans were succeeding? Every scenario leads to violence and chaos, and I feel trapped in a maze with no safe exit.
I stop pacing to check the time on my phone for the dozenth time in an hour, trying to decide whether enough time has passed to justify checking the library for any messages from Valentine. Adrian needs to know the truth about what Bianca did.
A sharp knock on my door interrupts my spiraling thoughts. “Ms. Draven?” The guard’s voice carries its usual disgust toward me. “You have a visitor.”
Weird.
Lorenzo never announces his visits. He simply shows up and charms his way past security. And Eleanorawould never risk coming here because her presence would make Julian and Lady Harrow suspicious, even though she’s my friend.
“A visitor?” I ask, opening the door. “Who?”
“This way,” the guard replies.
My anxiety spikes as I follow his bulky frame.
A handful of minutes later, we approach what I heard Lady Harrow call “The Blue Parlor.” It lives up to its name with walls painted in deep navy and furnished with antique furniture that’s too ornate. There are less dead animals on the walls, but still some. Any amount is more than my taste.
As I enter and scan the room, I’m shocked at who I find sitting on a wingback chair. Olivia. She sits with perfect posture, her hands folded gracefully in her lap as she examines a landscape painting on the wall.
