“Well, you’re clearly something.”
I sigh.
“What do you want, Adelaide?”
“Wow. The attitude.”
She leans back into the sofa.
“I’m worried about you.”
“No reason to be.”
She gives me a look that says she doesn’t believe a word.
“Your father is in prison, for a start. And Hunter is mostly gone.”
I open my mouth, but she raises a hand.
“Don’t.”
I close it again.
“I know there was something going on between the two of you. I’m not stupid, Piper, so don’t insult my intelligence by pretending otherwise.”
Her eyes narrow further.
“And unless I’m mistaken, you haven’t stepped onto the ice once since you came back for the second semester.”
I look away.
“I didn’t realise you were keeping tabs on me.”
“Someone has to.”
She tries to sound casual, but the concern is obvious.
“Start talking, Piper.”
I look at her for a long moment.
“I’ve been sleeping with Hunter for months, but I was married. To his father. He found out. He hated me. He left. His father beat the life out of me and I ended up in hospital unconscious for days. Hunter made him sign the divorce papers then he killed him. I went home with Hunter. Then I ran backhere to the academy and he came after me. Only by then too much had happened. I lied to him. I deceived him in a way. And I was always just this illusion in his head. A possession, some sort of obsession.”
The words keep tumbling out.
“I told him that now I finally have my freedom, I need someone who can love me. Really love me. But he’s incapable of it. At least that’s what he says. And he didn’t deny it. Which is fair because it’s true, but a part of me thought maybe it wasn’t. Maybe he’d tell me I was wrong. Instead, he left.”
I laugh without humour.
“And then it turned out the reason I was married in the first place was because his father and mine were tied up in some crime together. And now he’s in prison. I’ve tried to see him, but he refuses. Apparently I’m dead to him for betraying him.”
I shake my head.
“I gave up everything for him. Or at least I thought I did. And now it feels like it was all for nothing. He hates me anyway. I don’t really know how I’m supposed to feel about any of it.”
Adelaide stares at me.
“Wow. It only took you more than ten years to open up to one of us.”
