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“What the fuck would you know about the bylaws?”
“So Sly will finally stop building the low-income housing now, huh? Cut his losses and all.”
“What?” I ask Silas, keeping my hands firmly on Ethan’s forearm.
Silas looks at me, cocks his head in mock confusion. “Oh, shit. You didn’t tell her?”
“Get the fuck out of here, Silas, you piece of shit,” Ethan says.
Silas snorts. “It’s no way to start a happy marriage keeping secrets, kid.” He checks his watch. I notice it’s a Rolex. For all hismoney is evilbullshit, Silas Cruz is no stranger to luxury. “Anyway, pass on my greetings, will you? If you’re not too busy discussing wedding cakes and whatnot. I need to go.” He looks at me. “I’m meeting someone at my hotel.”
I don’t know why that stings. Silas Cruz and I aren’t a thing. We never were, not really. But still, there it is, that pang, that sharp cutting edge of the imaginary knife he presses into my chest.
“Don’t ever show your face here again, you fucking bottom-feeding bastard!” Ethan says, tugging himself free of me as Silas takes two steps away.
“Ethan!” I call out, but it’s too late. I see how Silas stops, how his back tenses. It’s the absolute worst thing to say to him. A glimpse of Ethan’s face, the sneer on it, confirms that he knows it. What’s more, he revels in Silas’s reaction.
Silas turns. His face is utter and complete fury.
“What’s the matter? Thought you were all about the truth, Silas. You’re a bastard. Your mother was a whore. We all know what she did.”
“Jesus! Ethan, what the hell is wrong with you?” I’ve barely gotten the words out when Silas is on him, arm swinging at Ethan’s face, knocking him backward into the glass wall.
“Call the police!” Ethan yells.
“Silas, stop!” I scream, grabbing Silas’s arm as he prepares to swing again. I wrap my arms around his neck to stop him, to put myself between them. “Stop, Silas, stop!”
Ethan laughs when Silas pauses, looks down at me, one arm wrapped around me, holding on to me for a moment. His body is warm, his scent familiar. It awakens an ache inside me.
“Get out of the way, O. I don’t want you getting hurt,” he says, coming back to himself and trying to dislodge me.
I cling to him, though, as he advances on Ethan, who touches his thumb to his bloody lip.
“What’s the matter, hit a nerve? Bastard?” Ethan asks, taking his phone out, dialing 911 himself when I don’t do it.
“You goddamn—” Silas starts, managing to get me off him.
I stumble backward but charge at Silas again. “Silas, no! You’ll kill him!” I knock into him hard, notsure how else to get his attention. He catches me when I bounce backward off his chest, which is like a freaking wall, but that does it.
As Ethan starts to speak to the 911 operator, I make Silas look at me. I set my hands on his face and make him see me. “Don’t, Silas. Don’t. It’s not worth it. Just go home. You don’t belong here. Go home.”
His eyes search my face, and there it is, the pain I know he feels at the very recent loss of his mother, Ethan’s taunts so cruel. It’s when I feel a tear slide down my own cheek that he stops, though, his fury shifting into something else, attention coming fully to me, eyes focusing on that tear. Slowly, he brings his thumb to my face and wipes it away, and there is a moment of rare gentleness from Silas Cruz that I have had fleeting glimpses of, that I miss so much. It’s these moments that take my breath away.
But it’s just that, a moment, like a slip in time gone so fast, I almost wonder if I imagined it.
Silas roughly sets me aside and steps toward Ethan, who disconnects the call. “Cops are on their way,” Ethan says.
“Silas, go. Get out of here,” I say.
“Yeah, Silas, go. Get out of here.” Ethan tugs me to his side and wraps a possessive arm around me.
Silas’s gaze falls on that arm, hand possessive around my waist.
“You’re a worthless piece of shit following in your father’s footsteps. I thought maybe once a long fuckingtime ago you wouldn’t want it, considering. But I was wrong. And you,” Silas turns to me, a cruelty in his eyes I’ve never before seen, not even the last time I saw him. “You’re just like them, aren’t you, Barbie? You’re the one who’s not worth it. I should know better,” he spits before turning his back and stalking out of the house.
3
OPHELIA
