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“My… it’s… all my paintings!” I stammered as I looked around the room, shocked to see them all displayed on golden easels, like his own personal art gallery.
“You kept them! Oh, Ryker, you don’t know what this means to me!” I said, throwing myself in his arms and hugging him, making him hum down at me,
“Not nearly as much as they mean to me, for they were created by the woman I love.” I melted into him, before lifting my head and going on my tiptoes to kiss him. Something he appreciated as he quickly deepened the kiss. But then when I pulled back, I whispered,
“Thank you, honey.” His eyes heated at the endearment I braved to make, telling me I had done the right thing.
“You’re welcome, sweetheart,” he replied, now kissing me on my forehead. But then I stepped back so I could face all the small canvases displayed, telling him,
“I still can’t believe it… thank you for showing me this.”
“That’s not all I wanted to show you, Little Bird,” he said, making me turn back around to face him and, this time, my shock didn’t just continue, it nearly made me fall to my knees.
However, there was already one of us on our knees and the second he lifted a box up and flipped open the lid, I gasped just as he asked…
“Marry me, Evelyn.”
30
THE QUESTION OF TRUTH
“Marry you?” I repeated, and I wasn’t sure why, seeing as he had a ring and everything. But I think my utter shock was easy to see, along with my panic. He didn’t answer me, but simply pulled the ring from the box and started to put it on me, which was when I pulled back. Something I hated to do seeing as the hurt was easy to see on his face.
“Yes, Evelyn, marry me,” he repeated, making me shake my head and tell him,
“But we haven’t been together longer than a few days and you… you don’t even know me.” At this he frowned before getting back to his feet and telling me,
“I know everything I need to in order to know this is what I want.” After this I really started shaking my head.
“No… you don’t, and you can’t say that,” I argued, making him narrow his gaze down at me.
“The fuck I can’t. I love you, Evie, that’s all that matters.”
“But… but you don’t know me enough to…” Again he cut me off, asking,
“Do you love me?” I startled at this, realizing I hadn’t said it yet. But I knew the second I did say it, then he would find even less of a reason not to marry me. And I couldn’t let him do that. I couldn’t trap him this way. Not when he didn’t know the real me.
Not when he didn’t know what I had done.
So, I did the cowardly thing and turned away from him, telling him as I did,
“Why can’t we just carry on the way we are?”
“Evelyn, do you love me?” he asked again, ignoring the way I tried to steer the conversation away from admitting that I did, knowing he would use it against my weak reasons.
“Ryker, this all too fast, we barely know each other.” At this his jaw hardened and his eyes narrowed before he looked away.
“I see,” he said firmly, and just the way his voice changed, I could hear the hurt I had caused.
“I see,” he said again, and I actually winced from it. But just as I said his name, he promptly left, now walking out the door.
“Ryker, I…” This trailed off into a curse… “Fuck!” I hissed, grabbing my head and hating what I was doing to him. Because if I was honest, saying yes to marrying Ryker felt so fucking right! Being his for as long as I was alive, seemed like the most natural decision to make in the world. But the girl he was asking, wasn’t the girl he knew. I wasn’t the Evelyn Parker he was asking to marry him.
I was Evelyn Leucosia.
Murderer.
But then as I looked around the room, the evidence to the love he had for me cried out to me. It was showcased everywhere in the artwork he had saved. So, I had to question what his reaction would be to finding out about my past. He was a Demon after all, perhaps he wouldn’t care.
