Page 161 of The Encore’s Crown

“Even I’m not dumb enough to think anything I say is going to make it through that thick skull.”

“Nothing needs to make it through.” I grip the railing harder. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Do you? Because yesterday you were reconnecting with the woman everyone thought you’d eventually marry, and this morning you’re sneaking out of Natalia’s penthouse like she spent the night using you as a scratching post."

I tug my collar higher over the mark she left. Rithy’s grin flashes.

“I’m just trying to understand.”

“There’s nothing to understand. I—”

“Don’t say it. Don't you fucking say you love her.”

I stop again. Rithy nearly walks into me.

“We're not in high school,” he says. “You don’t spend one night with someone and announce you’re in love because the sex scrambled your brain.”

I put my hand against his chest and shove him back by the shoulder.

“And what if I fucking do?”

His expression changes. The stairwell goes quiet around us.

“What if I love her?”

I hear the words as I say them. I love her. I expect them to taste like panic, or a rope closing around my throat. They don’t.

They taste sweet.

Dangerously fucking sweet.

Rithy stares at me. I stare back. Then he knocks my hand away from his chest.

“Then congratulations. You’ve fucked yourself on purpose.”

A laugh escapes me and echoes through the stairwell.

“I’m serious,” he says. “You understand that, right? She’s Kasia’s little sister. Rafe already wanted you dead before any of this happened. Half the internet is going to call you a predator when you hard launch it or whatever. Which you know you'll have to with someone like Natalia.”

I resume walking. Rithy follows close behind.

“So, what exactly is your plan?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Excellent. Strong start.”

I glance back at him.

“I just know I'm not running this time. I'm not giving her up. Not again.”

That shuts him up for three whole steps. Then he exhales.

“Well, I guess you’re getting married.”

I stop and cock my head.

“That’s the only possible way this doesn’t implode. You marry her, or the whole thing eventually burns down and takes several innocent bystanders with it. Me, being one of them.”