“It seems pretty simple to me. You could tell Lucas about your father’s plan, but not Delilah? Not even me? I’m your wife, dammit. Why would you keep this from me?”
“That’s easy,” I whisper. Even that is enough to take it out of me. I’m so tired. “He wouldn’t want to get in the way of his father’s plans.”
He glares at me for a second before softening a little. “It’s not like that. You’re underestimating me.”
“How so? It would have been pretty simple to give me a heads-up. I already know there’s a target on my back around here, but I didn’t think he’d be sending somebody to kill me.”
“But this wasn’t him.”
“Enough. I don’t want to hear it anymore.” I close my eyes, fighting the tears threatening to well up in them. I won’t give any of them the satisfaction of seeing me cry. I’m so tired of being hurt.
“Both of you, get back to the dorms. It’s late.” Lucas turns to Aspen and Q.
It’s obvious Aspen doesn’t want to listen to him any more than she wants to be near her husband, but she goes anyway after shooting me one last look. “Let me know if you need anything, okay?”
“I will. Thank you.”
Lauren clears her throat. “I have to do a couple of things. I’ll be nearby if you need me.” She shoots daggers at Lucas before leaving the two of us alone. I really wish she wouldn’t. I have nothing to say to him now.
Actually, that’s not quite true. “I can’t believe you. How could you do this to me?”
“I meant to tell you the night I came to your room.”
“But you didn’t. And that was, what, three weeks ago? How many opportunities have you had since then? Or was this the kind of thing you could only tell me that night, and that’s all?”
His face scrunches up, and he rubs the bridge of his nose like he has a headache. Like he has any idea what a headache is right now. I’m the one lying here suffering. “You’re not making this any easier.”
“Oh, excuse me. I would hate to inconvenience you. I’m sorry you had to take time away from whatever you were doing just to come down here.”
“You know it isn’t like that.”
“I don’t know anything, do I? Here I was, thinking you actually cared about me at least a little. All these weeks, there was the chance I could be killed. And you couldn’t say a word about it. What if I died tonight? And you could have stopped it, but you didn’t?”
His mouth works like he’s trying to come up with something to say, but I know whatever it is will be a lie. “Just forget about it. Go away. I don’t want you here, and I don’t want your shitty excuses.” I turn my face away from his, even though moving my head is agony.
It’s still preferable to having to set eyes on him. The liar. The coward.
At least he takes the hint, retreating slowly. Now I can let the tears fall, and I do, allowing them to course slowly down my cheeks.