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“And you agreed. You heard me. But then you lied. You lied the entire fucking time I’ve known you.”

And now Jolie interrupts. She takes a step toward the space between Clement and me, trembling but unafraid.

“Stop this, Clement.”

But I see his anger. I know his anger. I’ve had that same anger myself.

I know that, like me, he’ll never stop.

“They told me,” he says, taking another step. “It was Leopold.”

“Of course it was.”

“I didn’t want to speak to him,” Clement continues. “But we had a meeting this morning. He told me how this all started years ago. He told me about your task. He told me everything. I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to believe my best friend would do something like that, but then the other Elders confirmed it. My best friend fucking my sister. My best friend turned out to be nothing but a liar.”

Of course Leopold Anguish would drop a bomb like that, knowing exactly what his words would do.

It’s far too late to make any kind of excuse, so I might as well tell my best friend the truth.

“Yes, we had something,” I reply coolly, “as teenagers. Jolie and I didn’t tell you.”

Clement shakes his head. If he still didn’t totally believe it, he does now.

“And do you know how humiliating that is? Father knows, correct?”

He’s glaring at his sister.

“Father knows?” he asks again.

Jolie nods.

“Does Baptiste know?” Clement now asks, already fully aware of the answer. “Does everyone know except for me? Is everyone laughing at me? How could I trust you, Fabien? I’ve been so fucking careful in my life about who I let in, but I never thought my best friend would betray me.”

There’s no point in fighting.

“Clement,” I say, “let’s sit down and talk about this like men. As friends.”

His lips curl in a snarl.

“Fuck off, Fabien. My own fucking sister? All those vacations. All those years in my family home. And you were with her the entire time? In secret? Laughing at me? Lying to me? And now you’ve used the Castaways to get to her again, after she rejected you?”

“It’s not like that,” Jolie says. “Father has tried to control me for too damn long, and I’m not going to let you do it, too. I’m not a trophy for you to hide, Clement. I have a life of my own. I have my own desires. I am my own woman.”

Clement blinks, confronting the reality that maybe his sister wants this.

But immediately, he’s back on the warpath.

“It’s not about that. It’s not about you, sis. It’s about how he lied to me. Both of you. About how you made me believe you hated each other.”

The violence in his eyes is palpable. I have never seen Clement so unhinged. So vindictive.

He could do anything.

“It’s real, Clement,” I say. “We don’t hate each other. It’s the opposite. I know you told me I couldn’t touch her, but we couldn’t fight what we felt, and I’m not going to apologize for that. The biggest regret I have is that I allowed her to walk away from me, but now we have a second chance, and I won’t screw it up again. I will protect her with every breath I have left in me. The truth is that I’m terrified of losing both of you. I love you, Clement, and I love Jolie.”

Clement stares at me.

I stare back.