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“Zeno, forgive me for my temper that night. Please know that I forgive you too. For everything. The blackmail material. Armel’s murder—”
“Stop.” The word was ripped from his chest. His hands fell to my hips and squeezed. “Please, just stop.”
It’s like he didn’t even feel deserving of my forgiveness either.
Zeno took another drink from the bottle and liquid sloshed at the half-mark. He didn’t look drunk or tipsy, but if he kept drinking, we would never find a middle ground.
I snatched the bottle and emptied its contents on the ground. Zeno remained stoic. Not one word of complaint when I deposited it next to us on the bench.
“I’m not leaving until we talk this through.” I coiled my arms around his shoulders and kissed his temple.
The wind sailed again, the leaves in the trees rustling like a crying banshee.
“Please, Darla,” Zeno spoke haltingly with a vacant expression. “Just go. I can’t do this with you.”
Could he physically feel my heart shattering?
“And I can’t do this without you,” I pleaded, trembling from the chill in his voice. “Marrying you is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I need you, Zeno. We’ve both made mistakes, but we can rectify them. Forgive me and forgive yourself. No more secrets moving forward.”
I kissed his lips, tasting the whiskey.
He wrenched his mouth from mine with a curse.
I scrambled off his lap.
Zeno’s hands flexed, reaching out for me on impulse and then dropping to his side.
Wreck.
I was an emotional wreck.
Why was he being like this?
“Haven’t you missed me?” I asked, anguished. “Haven’t you missed me at all, Zed?”
He watched me with a burning intensity, trying to convey with his eyes what he couldn’t say out loud.
I needed words now.
Not action.
For the sake of pushing him, I said dryly, “I guess I should thank you forshowing methe ropes. When we divorce a few months from now, I’ll be sure to show Shaun all the tricks you taught me.”
My cheap shot worked.
Zeno’s eyes darkened to black. His entire demeanour shifted to something wild. “What did you say to me?”
My husband unfolded to his staggering height, anger pouring off him in waves. He drank the crude twist of my lips, the sheer gown taunting him, and the diamond choker branding me as his, despite what I just said.
I grabbed the lantern. “You heard me.”
“Take it back.”
“No.”
If he really believed I was going to leave him for Shaun, then we were already doomed.
I was never leaving Zeno.
