Her words have me freezing, and for a moment, I just stare at her, standing drenched in water to her chest, clothes clinging to her.
“And?” I echo, trying to comprehend what she just said. I must’ve heard it wrong.
“Yeah.” Her jaw is tight. “So what? So what if he did?”
That’s when the sickening realization dawns on me. She went in there knowing she wouldn’t walk out. She knew. She wanted to die on that table.
My knees nearly buckle as I look at her.
“W-Why?” The words are torn from me, a desperate whisper. “You’re so young. You have your whole life ahead of you. Why would you want to—Why would you let him—?”
I can’t say it out loud.
My wolf is clawing against the cage of my mind, both terrified and infuriated.
“I didn’t ask you to help me!” That emptiness has begun to fade from her eyes, replaced by a fury so visceral that it relieves me. “I didn’t ask you to pay off my debt. I don’t need your help. I don’t need anything from you!”
That’s it. I wade through the water until I’m standing face to face with her. “Did you expect me to just let you do something so stupid?”
Her head tilts back as she glowers up at me. “Yes. Yes, I do. And why shouldn’t I? Who are you? You and I are strangers. We have nothing to do with each other. So what gives you the right to interfere with my choices?!” She drills a hole in my chest at that last sentence.
Her words piss me off.
“I have every right!” I roar at her, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her to me till she slams into my chest. My fingers thread in her hair, bunching it together and forcing her head back. “Nobody has more rights to you than me!”
Her breath hitches as shock flashes over her face. And then she hisses, “How dare you?”
She shoves me back with both hands, her whole body trembling. “Just because you paid off the debt doesn’t mean you own me now!”
It’s my turn to be shocked. “I didn’t say that!”
“Leave me alone, Grayson!” She’s shaking so badly that I’m beginning to feel a different sort of fear. I grab her by her upper arms.
“I never said I own you,” I growl. “But you matter to me, Miranda, whether you like it or not. I was not going to sit there and watch you destroy your life.”
“I matter to you?” She stares at me now, the fight fading from her body, but the look in her eyes is devastation. “No, I don’t. You threw me away like everybody else. You walked away, didn’t you? You took Ethan away from me.”
Her last line pierces me.
She loves my son. She tries to hide it, but I have always been able to tell.
You took Ethan away from me.
That part hurts her the most.
When I don’t say anything, she presses her lips together. “This is my life, Grayson. My debt, my choice, my problem. I never asked you for one single thing. Not once. So why are you here? Why do you keep showing up when I never asked, when you’ve already made it very clear you don’t want me anywhere near your life?”
She turns and begins wading through the water to get to the bank.
I drag her back to me.
She pounds my chest with her fist, enraged. “Stop doing that!”
“Then stop walking away from me.”
“Why? You do it all the time.” Her barb reaches the mark, and I flinch.
“I’m not allowed to make mistakes?” I demand. “I got a little overzealous, and you punish me by going to Kozlov and signing your death warrant?”
