Page 175 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

I see tears turn her eyes into shimmering pools of gold. She blinks and a single teardrop falls free, creating a jagged line down her cheek.

My fingers ache to reach out and wipe that tear away.

Instead, I clamp my hand into a fist.

“You want to know what changed?” she asks softly, taking another step toward me.

We’re standing close together now, her body is only inches from mine. Her breasts rise and fall with the heat of her emotion. It takes all my self-control to keep from grabbing her.

“Because you killed him,” she continues without waiting for me to answer. “You killed my brother.”

The words fall from her lips like wilted petals. Each one heartbreaking.

I draw a slow, shuddering breath.

So she’d overheard. She must’ve been awake when Cillian and I were talking. Of all the ways for her to find out, this is the worst.

At least it explains everything. Most of all, it explains the haunted look in her eyes just before she passed out at the safehouse.

She was looking at me and she wasn’t seeing the man who kept her safe from killers at that funeral.

She was seeing the man who’d ruined everything she ever loved.

I lift my eyes to Esme’s.

I will not shrink from this.

I owe her my honesty. It’s all I have left to give.

“Yes,” I whisper.

I see her hand fly up towards me. I could dodge the slap or snatch it out of mid-air.

But I do neither.

I stand still and accept it. My face jerks to the side when her palm makes contact with the side of my jaw.

It’s a faint sting. Hardly enough to register—physically, at least.

But in some ways, it’s the most agonizing thing I’ve ever felt.

“You bastard,” she spits. “You fucking bastard.”

I say nothing.

Esme is shaking her head. She takes one slow step away from me, though her eyes never leave mine. “You lied to me.”

“I never lied to you.” It’s a cop-out, but I have to say something. I can’t stand the way she’s looking at me. The hate, the burning fucking rage in her eyes. “I just didn’t tell you that part of my past.”

“It wasmypast too!” she screams. Her tears are gathering faster now. “He wasmybrother and I loved him.”

Her love for him is the only thing that prevents me from telling her everything.

It’s the only thing protecting her from the truth of what happened all those years ago.

“I can’t change what happened, Esme.”

She stills for a moment, her eyes fluttering to me as tears glisten like frost on her long eyelashes. “Even if you could change what happened… would you?”

---