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“Yes, for what happened. For… what I did. I… fuck, Sia.” He exhaled a pained breath. “I had no right to do that. To take that from you. You were confused, scared and—”
“Please, don’t. Don’t treat me like a child who didn’t know what she was doing.”
How could he even think that?
I began to tremble, indignation burning in the hollow pit of my stomach.
“Sia, I meant no offense. But you have to know how sorry I am.” He scrubbed his jaw and the moment struck me as strange. There he was, laid out on his couch, completely immobile and I was the one looming over him as if I held the power.
Yet, he was the one breaking my heart all over again.
Silence stretched out before us.
Then he said, “Thank you, for not telling Nicco.”
“I should go.”
I needed to get far, far away from here.
From him.
But he couldn’t let me do it. Tristan couldn’t let me walk away with the tiny shred of dignity I still possessed.
“You should do it, you know.”
“Excuse me?” I turned and met his conflicted gaze.
“Transfer schools. Get out of Verona. Experience life away from the family.”
“You want me to leave?”
His brows pinched. “That’s not—”
“I thought you were dying. I watched you bleeding out on the gravel and all I could think was I’d never gotten to tell you how I really felt. That I… I love you. I’m in love with you. And you’re telling me to leave? God, I am such an idiot.” My chest heaved with the weight of my words. “I’ve spent the last year falling deeper and deeper and then at the party, out there in the cabin, I thought you felt it too. For a second, I thought you felt it.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks but I wiped them away with the back of my hand.
“Alessia.” He tried to sit up. “I’m—”
Before he could say another word, I rushed out, “I’m glad you’re okay, I am. But stay away from me Tristan. If you care about me at all, you’ll stay away from me.”
Then I ran out of there.
With my heart in tatters.
And only myself to blame.
* * *
The next day,Genevieve made me join her, Dad, Nicco, Arianne, and Lucia for dinner. I’d tried to get out of it, feigning a headache, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
I’d barely slept. Replaying Tristan’s words over and over in my head. In between all the tears, of course.
Heartbreak sucked.
And now, I had to endure a family meal and pretend everything was okay.
“See-ah, See-ah.” Lucia clapped her pudgy little hands as I sat down beside her.
