“He’s controlling!” The words come to me suddenly. And they’re not wrong—Atticus isverycontrolling. In a totally hot, totally wanted way, of course. But she doesn’t need to know that. “He’s super intense. Like, you wouldn’t like dating him.”
“I don’t know,” Cassie murmurs, her eyes wide with shock and denial. “I might like that.”
“You won’t,” I insist. “I’ve seen it. He wants to dictate your every move. What you wear, where you go, when you see him. It’s crazy.”
Cassie purses her lips, raising an eyebrow at my declaration. “I think you’re being dramatic.”
“I’m not! Seriously. He’s like a dictator. It’s… It’s repulsive.”
The word leaves me with a sour taste. I’m trying so hard to push her away from him that I genuinelydolie to her.
“Plus,” I continue. “You’d have to sit around in that dark castle every day, completely shut out from the world. If you get with him seriously, you’ll be stuck. You think he’d let you go?”
“Uh, Cam—”
“No, listen,” I interrupt. “You’d be his littlethingto own, not his wife. He doesn’t operate like that. Trust me when I tell you that you won’t love being with him. His personality can be pretty revolting.”
“Cameron!” Cassie shouts, her eyes wider and more startled now.
I realize I’m panting, staring down at her in a panic. But she’s hardly looking at me.
“What?” I breathe.
Then I follow her line of sight, where she’s side-eyeing the door of the guestroom, and I see him.
Atticus, standing in the now open doorway as he glares at me. It’s a glare so piercing, so terrifying that I freeze.
Shit.
Without a single word, he turns on his heel and walks away.
Atticus
10
I WALK STRAIGHT OUTof the front door. The music and the lights fade as I head for my car, completely fazed.
Repulsive? Revolting?Crazy?
This entire time, has he really been viewing me this way while I’ve been planning a future with him?
I’m pathetic. I’ve kept my distance from the people in town in fear of being used, or just from genuine discontentment, for so long now that you’d think I’d have kept a wall up between Cameron and me.
But I didn’t. I allowed him complete access to my heart, my soul, my entire being, and he’s screwed me over. Betrayed me.
How do I recover from this? How am I meant to trust anyone ever again?
I mean, I even left Atlas’s eighteenth birthday dinner early to come to this stupid party—that’s how much I wanted Cameron to thrive. To be happy. To feel loved.
I couldn’t give two fucks about Kimberly, whose birthday can pass without my presence for all I care. But Cameron? I could never leave him hanging, even if it means making it up to my brother later.
And now, like an idiot, I’m fleeing with my heart shattered and my mind reeling.
“Atticus!” Cameron shouts, undoubtedly running down the front steps of Cassie’s house.
I quicken my pace, my BMW in sight.
“Stop, Atticus!” he shouts again, breathless and with a hint of fear in his voice.
