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She knew.
She knew I’d seen.
She knew I was so close to breaking.
“Neri...” I cleared my throat, trying to speak around the shattered glass inside it. “Can I...can I talk to you alone for a minute. Please.”
Jack raised an eyebrow, but his faith in me, his blind fucking trust, had him grinning as if my inability to accept his yearly invitation to be his wasn’t unusual.
“Planning covert Christmas shenanigans, huh? Fine.” Swooping toward Anna, he grabbed his wife and carried her giggling down the corridor. “Tell you what! Let’s all dress up! Make an occasion of our last family dinner under the same roof. Go raid your closet, Aslan. Anna and I will be a while.”
Anna squealed as Jack buried his face in her neck, marched her into their bedroom, and kicked the door closed. Her throaty laugh hinted exactly what they planned on doing.
I didn’t care if they were planning on making out or dressing up, the only thing I cared about was Neri.
My moon-married wife.
The girl who’d just torn out my heart and left it bleeding all over the damn kitchen.
“Neri...” I breathed, drifting toward her, cursing the remnants of alcohol and the fog of day-drinking. I reached for her damaged wrist. “What did you—”
“Not here.” She reared back, not letting me touch her. With a thin breath, she braced her shoulders and strode with a ramrod spine all the way to her bedroom.
I followed with my shredded heart dragging all the way behind me.
Chapter Fifty-Three
*
Aslan
*
(Moon in Ganda: Omwezi)
I DIDN’T SAY A WORD AS SHE waited for me to step into her girlish decorated bedroom.
I stared at the mermaid bedside light and mosquito net draped over her bed while she quietly closed the door. Her teal blankets and lacy pillows clashed with the pink-lacquered dresser and chipped lemon tallboy.
A lifetime she’d spent in this room.
Evolving.
Becoming.
I’d been inside her on her bed. I’d rutted into her against her door. I’d believed we were fated, all while we’d laughed and kissed and made promises to each other in snatched moments when her parents weren’t home.
All that preciousness. All that belonging tore itself into pieces and crushed beneath our feet as I turned to face her.
She stayed by the closed door, clinging to the handle.
No lock.
No way to stop her parents from coming in.
Nothing to prevent me from doing what I was about to do.
As calm as a storm about to tear a city apart, I stepped into her and grabbed her right wrist.
