Page 51 of Hidden

And for the first time since the night before, since her hand had pressed so softly against the glass and her forehead had rested against mine before she pulled away and shut me out, I found myself wondering whether I had been wrong to call it rejection at all, whether what I had seen in her eyes had not been distance or regret, but fear.

I pushed the thought away before it could fully form, my jaw clenching as something sharp and dangerous began to build beneath my ribs.

“No one mentioned anything about her mother before?” I asked, my voice tight.

“Not like this,” Riley said. “And not enough to make it worth bringing back. It’s all… surface-level stuff. Easy to explain away if you’re not looking for it.”

“But now we are,” Dante said.

His gaze shifted to me then, steady, assessing.

I held it for a second, then looked away, my fingers curling slightly against the arm of the chair.

Because now nothing made sense.

She’d gone back to Nico.

Stayed with him.

Chosenhim.

That was the truth I’d been working with for years.

The only version that didn’t tear me apart every time I thought about it.

But now I was plagued with “ifs”.

If there was something else going on.

If she wasn’t choosing him.

Then what the fuck had I been doing all this time?

Letting her stay there.

Walking away.

Respecting a choice that might never have been hers to make.

A harsh breath left me as I pushed to my feet, the chair scraping loudly against the floor behind me.

Dante’s head snapped up slightly. “Sit down.”

I didn’t.

“Vienna—”

“I’m fine,” I cut him off, even though we both knew that was a lie.

My hands flexed at my sides, my mind racing, trying to piece together something that refused to settle into anything solid.

“She told me she loved him,” I said, more to the room than anyone in it. “She fought me to go back to him.”

“And you believed that,” Dante replied evenly. “We all did.”

I laughed, short and sharp. “What else was I supposed to do?”

“Look a little closer,” he said. “Stop looking through hurt, and start looking a little closer.”