“Tell me what you’re here for. You’re frightening me.”
My father’s lips thinned. “Someone saw you coming out of the Wynter hotel last night.”
My stomach lurched. My first instinct was to deny it. “I don’t think so.”
The lines between his eyebrows deepened. “You’re saying they were mistaken?”
“They must have been. Who said they saw me?”
What were any of my father’s people doing over in Wynter territory? I guessed they could ask the same of me, but I had a reason for it. The only reasons I could think of were that they were spying on me, or they meant Jayden harm.
He didn’t answer my question. “Where were you last night then, Ivy? Where have you been tonight?”
“At the library, studying,” I lied.
“It’s almost one in the morning.”
“The library stays open late, and then I went to get drinks with friends. I’m twenty years old. I can do what I like. I don’t need to report myself to you.”
He scowled. “Yes, you do, especially when my money is funding your education.”
Anger rose inside me. “Then I won’t take your money. I’ll get a job and a student loan like everyone else.”
He gestured around him. “And what about this house? Who do you think paid for that?”
I tightened my hands into fists. “It’s in my name. Legally, I own it. And had I known that accepting it would mean you’d get to keep tabs on everything I did, I’d have thought twice.”
He linked his fingers together on the tabletop. “Where were you last night, Ivy?” he repeated, clearly not taking my first answer.
“At the library,” I insisted.
“And if I check that with the university, they’ll be able to confirm it? They’ll supply me with CCTV footage of you entering and leaving the building?”
Iced water plunged through my veins. That was never going to happen because I’d never been there. Other than those couple of hours a few weeks ago, I hadn’t been anywhere near the library. All my time had been spent with Jayden.
I did my best not to let my emotions show and shrugged. “Do what you like.”
I wished I’d chosen a spot that was harder to trace, but this was London—filled with CCTV cameras—and my father had men secreted in every pocket of North London. If he wanted to get his hands on information, he would.
What was I going to do? I’d have to stop seeing Jay—it was my only option. But the thought tore me in two. I didn’t want to stop seeing him. I wondered what he would say if I told him that my family suspected us. He would probably say that they’d just have to deal with it then, but he didn’t know my family, not like I did. My father expected that the people under him lived by his rules, and there was no way he’d have a daughter fraternising with the enemy.
I sighed as though I was bored by this whole conversation. “Is there anything else you want to interrogate me about ’cause I’m actually really fucking tired from studying all the time. It is my final year, in case you’ve forgotten.”
The men exchanged glances. I sat with my hands in fists, my breath held.
My father jerked his head. “Fine, go to bed. But make sure you are where you say you are from now on.”
“I always am,” I snapped but got to my feet, relieved to make my escape. “You can see yourselves out.”
I turned and stalked out of the room, close to tears and my heart hammering. I hurried up the stairs and slammed into my room, feeling like I was a teenager again. I sat on the end of my bed and waited to hear them leave. It wasn’t until I was finally alone again that I allowed myself to breathe.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I put my head in my hands. What was I going to do? I had no choice, did I? I was going to have to let Jay go.
Without even bothering to undress, I climbed under the covers. Tears slid down my cheeks and dampened the pillow beneath my head. I didn’t think I’d ever get to sleep, and I’d just lie there, steeped in misery until the sun rose, but finally, oblivion claimed me.
***
IT TOOK ME A MOMENTupon waking to remember what had happened.