Page 153 of Stormbreaker

“Aria Society members,” I say. “They’ve pledged. They’re one of us now.”

He sighs and slouches on the couch, his hips sliding forward. “Whatever.”

Again, he remains silent, and this is starting to become annoying. The waitress arrives with our drinks, and I pick mine up and take a sip. “Okay, well, if that’s it, then I’m gonna get going.”

“Do you miss me?” he asks suddenly. “Do you miss what we had at all?”

The question stops me in my tracks. I study his face. He can’t be serious. But he holds still, clearly waiting for an answer. “What did we have, Knox? An agreement on paper? Me as your little trophy wife while you fucked around?”

His face darkens. “I . . .”

“Why did you do it?” I ask. “Why did you insist on humiliating me?”

“I don’t know,” he answers as a wounded look passes over his face. “I don’t know why I did it.”

It’s such a painfully inadequate answer, but I think he’s telling the truth in his own pathetic way. He doesn’t understand himself, either.

“Okay, well, as long as you have no idea why you decided to hurt me over and over. No, I don’t miss you or what we had. We didn’t have anything to miss.”

Again, I try to leave, but he stops me, wrapping a hand around my wrist. His touch is like oil, coating me in sludge. “Touch me again, and I’ll scream,” I say. Quickly, he releases me. “What’s going on? Winter not living up to your expectations?”

“I don’t want Winter,” he says. “I never wanted Winter.”

I scoff. “Not to marry, you mean. But to fuck while you were engaged to me. Then you wanted her, right?”

He has the grace to look guilty, at least.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I fucked everything up. It was all so much pressure.”

“What pressure?”

“My dad’s expectations of me. The way he assumes I’ll be just like him, but I’m not like him at all.” He shakes his head. “Fuck. I don’t even know what I’m saying.” Then he adds, “He’s replacing me.”

“What?” I ask.

“Your dad found someone else to groom as the future scion of Fiama. And my dad agreed it’s for the best. Said after everything that happened with us, I haven’t proven my character or some bullshit like that.”

“What about their alliance?”

“Still intact,” Knox says. “They’re stronger than ever. It just no longer has anything to do with me.”

“Oh,” I say.

He looks away, staring at a distant spot. I sigh and shake my head.

“I understand he expected a lot from you,” I say. “My dad expected a lot from me, too.”

Knox looks over, studying me. “I know.”

“None of it gave you the right to treat me that way.”

“I know that, too,” he says, then adds, “I think I did it because I never would have been good enough for you, Poet.”

He sits forward, sighing in obvious frustration. I’m stunned, frozen in my seat as I wait for him to continue. “I loved . . . I love you. I always have, but you’re so damn perfect. You think I didn’t know you could do better than me? The only reason you were stuck with me was because of our fathers, and I was just . . .”

He trails off, and I have no idea how to react.

“You were just what?”