Page 55 of Goldrage
For a heartbeat, we’re frozen. Two brothers who once shared everything—toys, secrets, the burden of being Lucian Harrow’s sons. Now we share nothing but blood and the memory of the same woman’s touch. The weight—the lies, the manipulation, the terrible possibility that everything I’ve believed is wrong—threatens to kill me right here.
I step back first. Not from fear, but because if I don’t get away from my brother, I’ll do something we can’t come back from.
“She’s carryingmychild,” I say, swaying on my heels. “And when it’s born, I’ll do what’s best for this family. Just like Mother taught me.”
Adrian lets out a strangled sound and balls his hands into fists. He looks at me like I’m already lost, like I’m standing at the edge of a cliff and choosing to jump.
I turn away before he can speak and say whatever words are forming behind those grieving eyes. I move toward the door, needing to escape. Needing air.
“She didn’t teach you, Julian.”
His voice stops me at the threshold.
“She programmed you. And someday, you’re going to have to decide whether you’re her son or your own man.”
I don’t turn around. Can’t. Because if I look at him now, I might break.
Instead, I walk away, but his words follow me. They settle into my bones, burrowing deep where the whiskey can’t reach.
I wander the house in my stupor. I don’t know where the hell I’m going.
I only know I can’t go back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
AURELIA
Ipace in my room, my feet wearing a path between the window and the bed. How am I going to get to Adrian? Every time I see him, he’s with guards or Bianca. There are cameras everywhere. Lorenzo talked to Gideon and evenhe’shaving trouble figuring out a good way to hack into the security. Gideon said it was because the security is self-contained on private networks. He also said the network is PAN, whatever that is.
He rambled off a lot of jargon, but I got the message: hard for anyone to hack outside of the estate, even for someone like Gideon. And it’s not like Gideon can just show up here. That’d be insanely suspicious.
But either me or Lorenzo needs to speak to Adrian privately. We need to move this plan forward. The doctor will draw my blood again in about two weeks, and if Gideon isn’t able to hide the results, well…
We just need to get to Adrian before that.
My fingers drift to the emerald necklace that’s back home along my collarbone. I grin because I can’t helpmyself. The memory of Lady Harrow’s blood spattering across the table when I broke her nose still tastes sweet. I’ll savor it the rest of my life.
I’ve seen her in the halls and she now cowers when I pass by. Her face is a mess with bruises along her nose, and there’s a bandage over the bridge. Only me and Lorenzo—and two guards—know why Lady Harrow is beaten up, so I wonder what she told everyone else.
I know she won’t tell anyone the truth, that the Golden One got the best of her.
Stupid bitch.
I pause at the window, pressing my palm against the cool glass. Below, the garden is like a painting with manicured hedges and blooming roses. But I’m growing so tired of this place.
My breath catches when I notice Adrian outside.
He appears from the hedge maze. The afternoon sun catches in his hair, and for a moment I can pretend we’re back at Lorenzo’s. Before the lies. Before the bullets. If Roby were next to him, then the image would be perfect.
Then I seeher.
Bianca clings to his arm like a barnacle, her fingers digging into his sleeve. The sight of her sets my teeth on edge and I actually growl. That’smyplace beside Adrian. My arm to hold.
Adrian glances up, and for one second, our eyes lock across the distance. My hand lifts, fingers spread against the window like I can reach through and touch him.
He looks away.
Another dismissal.
