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“Does it look like I want to talk about it?” My eyes stayed on the fire.
Theo leaned forward and helped himself to one of the cigars on the tray.
I wasn’t in the mood for a smoke. I wasn’t even in the mood for booze.
“I’m sorry, Axel.”
That didn’t make me feel better whatsoever.
We sat there for a long time, just absorbing the mutual silence. Theo continued to enjoy his cigar, and I continued to stare at the fire like he wasn’t there. Whenever I looked at the flames, I was reminded of Scarlett’s passion, of the way her fire leaped when I added my gasoline.
“Have you spoken to her?”
“No.”
“She’ll come back.”
“She won’t.” I turned to look at him. “I told her the truth about Dante.”
The cigar no longer seemed important because he kept it between his fingers rather than between his lips.
“She didn’t believe me.”
Anger flashed across his eyes, subtle but significant. “You think she’ll confront him?”
“She promised she wouldn’t.”
“And you believe that?”
I nodded. “I wouldn’t have told her if I didn’t.”
“Your father’s life is literally in her hands right now.”
“And that trust is well-placed.” She thought so little of me, but I thought the world of her. I knew she would never betray me, whether we were together or not. She had a good heart, and unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one to see that. Her father did too—and he chose to abuse it.
Theo stared at me for a while but didn’t press his disagreement.
“I love her, but I couldn’t do it anymore. We’d have a special moment that would only last a couple seconds before she got this look in her eyes…like our happiness only reminded her of her misery. In the blink of an eye, she’d remember my betrayal, and then the divide between us was even bigger than the previous one.”
“One step forward, three steps backward.”
“Exactly. I gave her an ultimatum. Forgive me—or forget me.” And she chose wrong.
Theo stared at me, clearly at a loss for words. He’d never been one for deep conversation or a discussion about his feelings, so his silence was unsurprising. His presence was his love language.
I reached for a cigar and lit up.
“Just kill him, Axel.”
“And what will that do?”
“He deserves it.”
“I already lost her, so his death won’t benefit me, just hurt her.”
“I think it’ll benefit her in the long run.”
It did bother me that her father was the puppet master and she was the one on strings. She assumed she had a guardian angel looking after her, but she was just a pawn in his chess game. She had no free will, despite what she thought. When I told her I loved her more than he did, that was the truth.
