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“…He didn’t tell you?” James asks. “Of course he didn’t,” he scoffs, his annoyance only feeding mine. He steps forward, but I tell him to stay where he is. There isn’t enough room in this building for how far away from James I want to be.
“Really? That’s how you’re going to be? After everything?”
“After what? Our breakup?”
“After what you went through, Tessa. With Mori. You know, I was one of the people trying to get you back—”
“The people who tried to get me back are dead or dying,” I correct him, sharply, refusing to let him have any kind of credit where it wasn’t earned. “Now tell me why we’re here.”
When I don’t buy into the pleasantries, his smile dulls at the edges. I see a glimpse of that awful man I recognize. The one that only comes out once the polish is rubbed away.
“You didn’t miss me at all, did you?”
“How could I? I never really knew you.”
He feigns hurt, shakes his head. The fucking liar, acting as if I’m the one who betrayed him.
“Okay, Tessa. Let’s get the truth out of the way. Your father has decided the best way for your family to recover from this is a happy ending. Ours. He asked me if I would still be willing to have you.
And I’ve agreed.”
The words are so absurd, I can only scoff at them.
“Well, I haven’t agreed to anything—”
“We’re engaged, Tessa,” he interrupts.
“I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere before,” I say, deadpan. He stares at me like I’m the crazy one, like he’s never seen anything so offensive.
“Are you serious? You said it yourself. People died for you, Tessa—died to get you back to your family. Is that not enough for you to finally grow up and play your role in it? What the hell does it take?
You had your little bout of freedom, and look what a fucking mess you made of it.”
“Shut up,” I snap at him. “If everyone would just leave me alone—”
“That’s not how the world works, Tessa! Not our world. You don’t get the same choices as everyone else. It’s not fair, but it’s reality. The more you fuck around, the more people get hurt. You and everyone around you. Haven’t you learned anything from all this?”
The accusations burn behind my eyes. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing it affect me. Of course there’s a part of me that blames myself. How could I not? Over and over, I think about the things I might have done differently, the heartache I could have saved everyone if I had just played by their rules.
Balancing the worth of your life and someone else’s life—it’s a painful scale to have to weigh.
“Tessa. . .”
I hate the way he says my name. Soft and deceptive, just how it sounded in the early days of our relationship. I instinctively try to pull away, looking at anything but him, blocking out the words and all the old emotions that come with them. “You and I both know we could have been happy together. We almost were. We can still have that, baby. It’s not that bad—compared to what could have happened to you, I thought you’d be grateful just to see me.”
What could have happened.
Salvatore keeping me as his—forever.
I thought I was crazy for wanting that, but standing here with James, I understand it perfectly.
How Salvatore made me feel was confusing while I was with him. Standing toe to toe with James gives me the clarity I’ve been longing for. This sweet-talking demeanor covers up his cruelty and his temper, his true self hidden behind a flimsy mask. A few months with him, and he couldn’t keep up the charade anymore.
Salvatore was the opposite. His cruelty and his temper were the mask, a rugged exterior that hid something softer—something that was for my eyes only. I could only glimpse it in the quietest, most vulnerable moments, but it was there. And once or twice, he let me see that part of him. What he really was, underneath it all. What he was willing to be only for me.
“I don’t want this,” I say, digging in my feet again, no matter how much he ridicules me for it.
“You really are a selfish brat,” he snaps. Clearly this didn’t go how he expected. “You and I are going to go out there,” he continues, “and we’re going to have a happy night, and convince all those people who you made suffer, that their loved ones didn’t get killed for nothing. It’s the least you can fucking do after all this.”
