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Behind him, on the other side of the glass, a door opened and two Mudden men walked in carrying Brent between them. His injuries looked even worse in the light of day. Everyone in the room went dead quiet at the sight of him.
Nova spotted Mak standing next to an older man she thought must be Brent’s other brother. Mak’s expression was pure rage. His brother was stoic, not showing a hint of emotion. As far as Nova knew, Brent wasn’t married, and his mother was too sick to attend, so that was all the family he had present.
The Mudden men walked him up on the platform.
Altair looked through the glass. A muscle in his jaw twitched. He turned around, walked toward Nova, grabbed her hand, and led her out of the room. The intimate gesture of hand holding took her by surprise. She followed without protest, even though she wanted to see what would happen to Brent. Though, ideally, she wouldn’t be able toseeif their sabotage had worked.
“What happened?” Nova asked as they walked outside, the bright sunlight a stark contrast to the dark events happening inside the building. Shouldn’t it be raining on a day like this?
“Gary back-stabbed me.”
“What was on the paper?”
“Devon gave Gary authority over me in all matters for as long as he is stationed in Baedden.”
“Why didn’t he mention that before?”
“He was probably waiting for the most embarrassing moment to bring it up, and I offered it up to him on a platter.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” she said, trying to be nice.
“He made a fool of me in front of all the Baedden leaders. I had a hard enough time trying to gain their respect before. It will be impossible now.”
Altair continued walking toward their house, still holding on to her hand.
Chapter Ten
“How could Devon do that to me?” he said, slamming the front door of their house behind him. “I knew he didn’t like me, but I didn’t realize he wanted to ruin me.”
Nova didn’t say anything. He was obviously working through something, so she stood back and watched him pace the room.
“When my grandfather asked me to work for him, I looked forward to finally having a place in the family. Why would Devon deny me that? Does he hate my father that much?”
“Maybe he sees you as a threat.”
Altair stopped moving to face her.
“A threat? I don’t want his inheritance. I don’t want the weight of the entire planet on my shoulders. I just want to be useful to my family. In my own way.”
“You are a better man than he is,” she said, surprised by how strongly she believed this. “Maybe he sees that. You tried to save a man’s life today.”
“And failed. And I’ll continue to fail as long as I refuse to obey Devon’s every word.”
She felt for him. She understood the pain of not belonging. And she knew the risk of going against your nature until it was all too late and you became the very thing you were pretending to be. Until you no longer even recognized the person in the mirror. Until you even went so far as to use your body to get what you wanted from others.
Her stomach twisted into a tight knot. She didn’t have to be that person if she didn’t want to. She could tell Altair the truth and face the consequences. But she was a coward. She didn’t want to be hung. She wanted to leave Mudden.
But maybe she didn’t need to lose her life to start being a better person.
“You don’t have to pretend to be someone else for me,” she said
He looked her in the eyes. A look of hunger, pain, and desire, and it was so intense, she couldn’t look away. She swallowed.
Maybe she could make up for what she’d done to him by giving Altair what he wanted. A wife who kissed him not with an ulterior motive, but just because she was attracted to him.
Heart pounding in her chest, she took a step closer.
“I don’t care what your last name is, as long as you keep looking at me like that.”
