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“Yes,” I said.
He turned on me, quick as a snapping viper.
“How could you do that to him?” he said. “How could you come into his life knowing you would leave him in ten weeks? Knowing this dangerous man was out there searching for you and not tell me?”
“I didn’t think he would find me,” I said. “You have to believe me. I thought it was an empty threat, that he wouldn’t show up.”
“And when he did turn up in town, why didn’t you or Cleb tell me you knew this stranger?”
“Because…”
This really was something I wasn’t looking forward to telling him. I shut my eyes and let my lips move.
“Because I told him a story,” I said. “An extension of the story I used when I first arrived here. I told him I wasn’t a real governess. I told him I was an undercover spy who was here on a secret mission. I came up with it when I saw him playing with his spy toys. He reacted well to it. You saw how well he did after that. I got him to try new things by pretending like he was helping me with my secret mission.”
“And are you a spy?” Traes spat. “Have you been sent here for some kind of corporate espionage?”
“What? No. Of course not.”
“Would you even tell me if you were?”
He was angry and looking for things to get upset about. I was sure I could calm him down with the right words.
“I’m telling you the truth now,” I said. “When I met you and Cleb… and I’ve never felt more at home in my life. I’m sorry I lied to you. I didn’t know you before. The only Titan I knew abused me. I didn’t know other Titans would be kind and decent people. I especially didn’t know I would fall in love with one.”
I reached out a hand to touch his face, to kiss him if he would let me.
He blocked my hand, shook his head, and turned away.
“So what story did you tell Cleb in town?” he said.
“I told him Asshole—sorry, that’s the name I use for the kidnapper because I don’t know his real name—was a bad spy.”
“You lied to him too?”
He looked disgusted with me and couldn’t even bear to look at me. He turned back to the fireplace and stared into it even though it wasn’t lit.
“My sister made me the godfather of her only son,” Traes said. “He was the most important possession she had. I guess she thought I would make a good godfather because I had enough money to provide well for him. I’m not saying I was perfect—far from it. But at least I could give him a good start in life. He would never want for anything.”
“You’ll be a great godfather.”
“Do you know how his parents died?”
“I thought they died in an accident?”
“It was anything but an accident. It took me a long time to learn the truth. And at considerable expense. It turns out my darling sister and her loser husband were gamblers. They couldn’t pay their debts and the sharks came calling. My sister could have asked me for the money but she was too proud. That was probably why she asked me to be Cleb’s godfather. She knew one day she would be in that position.
“I’ve been working to cover it up ever since,” he said. “Nobody knows the truth. Except for me, and now you. Cleb will never learn the truth about his parents and neither will anyone else. I’ll be his shield. I’ll protect him. Including from you. And I almost lost him because of you. I won’t let that happen again.”
His tone was hard as steel, just like the first time we met in his study. The warmth that’d grown toward me was now gone, replaced with ice-cold calm.
“What are you saying?” I said.
My emotions were pent up and ready to burst like a dam.
He raised his eyes and caught mine.
“I’m saying, I don’t want you in Cleb’s life anymore,” he said. “Or mine. I’ll pay for your ticket home. I never want to see you again.”
