Page 46 of Reign

“I know what I heard.”

“You heard wrong. Everything I’ve said to you has been true. You’re the one that’s been lying.”

“No, Milton, I’m just fucking human!” I’m yelling at him. I don’t care. “You want my honesty but are quick to make your own judgments. Then you use your staff as a blockade between us when I thought we’ve moved past that.”

He shoves my arms behind my back and uses one hand to grab both wrists. His free hand closes around my neck. My knee rises instinctively, but he blocks it easily, shoving my leg back down. “I thought that too, so why don’t you enlighten me about why we’ve gone back to square one?”

I try to shake my head, but he won’t let me. His fingers squeeze, blocking off my air for a second before releasing the pressure. I inhale sharply anyway, afraid he might cut it off for good. “It’s too late—”

He sneers, “Fucking tell me!”

“I was overwhelmed. It was the first time I’d seen Nicole in a year. I was in fucking shock, okay?” I hate when my voice cracks. “Blake sent her because he knows she affects me, and this is hisgame.” My bottom lip shakes, tears stinging my eyes. “Why wouldn’t she affect me? She was my sister. She was the only person I had, and she stabbed me in the back.”

His hand drops from my neck, guilt clouding his eyes. “I’m—”

“No, you want my fucking honesty, solistento it!” I don’t sound like me. This voice is crazed. Manic. “You willneverknow what it was like to sit and watch your own sistersmileat you because she got away with not paying for a small bag of cocaine. Forgive me for freaking out, for not telling you right away when I needed out of there. I’m sorry my fear was tooweakfor you—”

His lips come down onto mine, his grip on my wrists wavering. Lifting my arm, I slap him. The hand that connected with the side of his face stings like hellfire, and I gasp out loud, tears spilling over my cheeks as I blink.

“I’m—I’m... I didn’t—” Slowly, he turns to face me again. I go to stroke my fingers over the red mark I’ve left on him, regret smothering me, but he captures my hand again to stop me. That one action has me finally breaking down and sobbing. The tears fall like they’ve been on edge all night, and they probably were.

“I’m angry atmyself,” he suddenly says, giving away the emotions stirring inside of him too. “Mistakes were made—Imade them. Everything was hacked, and they did it only when they needed to, so it wasn’t fucking detectable. I should have detected it.”

“I don’t blame you—”

“I shouldn’t have put you in that position in the first place. It was desperation. Stupidity. What if it hadn’t been Nicole?”

“It was too easy for it to be anyone else. Nicole said so herself. She was there as a warning that you were going to die if I didn’t go with her. I simply began Blake’s game when I refused.”

He rests his forehead against mine and closes his eyes. “Let me do this without you here. Let me kill who I need to kill. Go back to the manor just one more time.”

“If you leave my sister and mother to me.”

“If that’s what you truly want...”

“It is,” I say seriously. “It should be my decision what happens to them—not yours.”

“You’re right.” He opens his eyes and moves a curl away from my face. “You really do look beautiful in that dress. And I really did want to do bad things to you in it.”

“Why can’t you?”

He smiles. It’s sad. “Because it’s time to go. I know where they are.”

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