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I notice her shudder. “So you were going to murder them?” Her brow furrows. “Have you killed before?”
I cast my mind back to the horror of my childhood. My father was a monster, perhaps worse than her parents. “My father forced me to kill from the age of thirteen.”
“Thirteen?” Eva echoes, her face pale.
“Yes.” I nod and meet her shocked gaze. “I had every intention of using you to get to your parents until I met you.”
Eva sits a little straighter, her eyes giving nothing away. “What do you mean?”
“You were everything I didn’t expect. Good and pure and innocent. The fucking opposite of your parents, and I knew I couldn’t use you the way I’d intended.”
“How did you intend to use me?” Eva asks, her voice cracking with emotion.
I move toward her, and this time she doesn’t shy away. “I’d intended to embroil you into a scandal.” I shrug. “I intended to throw you into the arms of Professor Daniels.” I sit down next to her. “But I couldn’t let him near you. I couldn’t let anyone near you.” I take her hand, and she stiffens, but she allows me to hold it. “You made me realize that there is more to life than revenge, and then I realized you hated your parents as well.”
She pulls her hand away. “I hate them, but I’d never harm them in the way you want to.”
It’s amazing how a girl nurtured all her life by such evil is untouched by it. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about myself. I may have run from the darkness, but a part of it lives inside of me. “I know.” I place a hand on her thigh and squeeze. “That’s why I concocted a new plan. One that doesn’t involve killing, but it will hurt your parents just as bad.”
Her brow furrows. “How could it?”
I hold a finger up. “Wait here a moment.” I head into my adjoining closet and search for the ring my grandmother gave me before escaping their clutches. I miss her the most among my family.
She understood why I didn’t want to be a part of it. A few days before I made my escape, she practically told me to go and gave me her engagement ring as a gift to remember her. I reach for the box and open it, gazing down at the simple yet beautiful ring. A flawless one and a half-carat diamond sits at the center of a floral crown white gold band.
Eva is going to think I’m insane. After all, she’s eighteen years old. She has her entire life ahead of her, and yet I want to lay claim to her. I want my ring on her finger and my name after hers before her life has started.
I shut the box, returning to the bedroom to find Eva gone.
“Fuck,” I growl when I see the door open. I rush out of the room, not finding her in the kitchen or living room. My heart pounds as I open the door to the cottage, the icy air whipping around me and making me shiver as I rush into the snow without a coat on.
Instantly, the panic eases when I see her sitting on a bench near the archway into my cottage, kicking her booted foot through the thick snow. She’s wrapped up in her thick winter coat, gazing longingly at the wintery, magical scenes surrounding her.
“Eva,” I call her name.
Her gaze snaps to me, and the look of pure anguish in her eyes cuts me right to my core.
“I’m sorry.” Eva’s brow furrows as she gazes at the snow. “I needed some air.”
I march toward her, feeling the blood rush harder through my veins at the prospect of proposing to this woman. I’ve only known her for two months, but I know without a doubt that I can’t live without her. The question is whether she feels the same way I do.
I stop in front of her, kneeling at her eyes level. As I gaze at her, I know with surety that I love her, and I can’t let her go without a fight. I believed I’d loved Jane, but it never felt like this. I kept my hands to myself with Jane and could resist the pull, but it was impossible to resist Eva.
Eva’s eyes widen when I pull out the black velvet box. “What are you—”
“Let me speak,” I say, flipping open the lid to reveal the ring. “Eva Carmichael, over the past two months, I have gotten to know you, and you are the kindest, most beautiful person I’ve ever known.”
Her mouth gapes open, and she glances between me and the ring.
“I love you, and I’m not willing to let you go.” I search her hazel eyes, trying to find the answer behind the unshed tears now forming in them. “Will you marry me?”
She shakes her head, and my heart sinks into my stomach. “Oak, my parents will murder you.”
I tilt my head to the side. “No, they won’t. I was expendable before, but I’ve got a lot of power as the principal of this school. Many powerful families owe me countless favors, and even your parents can’t go after a man like me.” I reach for her hand and squeeze. “This is your way out. A chance for you to go to college and get your qualifications to become a vet.” I can feel my chest ache. “I’ll protect you and keep you safe for the rest of our lives.”
A tear slides down her cheek. “Oak.”
“Yes, baby girl?”
