Here we go again.
I looked at her—the woman I'd loved for seven years, the woman who had almost become my wife—and suddenly she felt utterly foreign.
"Eliana," I said slowly, "just because he can't control himself, it's okay for him to smash a bottle over my head?"
Her eyes flickered. "He didn't mean it—"
"Then his insult to my mother was unintentional too?" I fixed my gaze on hers so she couldn't look away. "Was all that just ‘unconscious babbling'?"
"He was talking nonsense!" Eliana raised her voice. "Why are you picking on a patient?"
"Why can't I?" My tone cooled. "Just because he's ill, does that give him the right to trample my dignity, my feelings, and my mother's memory? Why must I always be the one to suffer and understand?"
"Eliana, the things you did back then, the guilt you carry—why should I pay the price for them?" I pushed.
Her face went blank. After all, she had never heard me speak so bluntly.
"That's not what I mean, Jared. Let's calm down, okay? I'm sorry—once Gideon calms down, we'll talk properly—"
I cut her off. "There's nothing to talk about. You don't owe me an apology either."
I closed my eyes; the cut at my temple throbbed. "Between us, it was already over when you went to the bar with him in your wedding dress."
Eliana's brow knitted tightly; her voice pitched higher. "I said that to settle him down! Can't you understand? I'm stuck in the middle here!"
My gaze was steady and empty. "Don't trouble yourself. Leave, Eliana. Go take care of the brother who can't do without you. He's more important than me."
She opened her mouth as if to protest, but only pressed her lips together and left the ward.
She didn't come back for the next few days.
After I was discharged, I went alone to the cemetery to say goodbye to my mother and leave the city.
When I arrived, the sight made my blood rush to my head and my limbs went cold.
Gideon.
He was there with a shovel—where he'd gotten it, I had no idea, but he was frantically digging at my mother's grave. Soil lay overturned everywhere; the headstone had been knocked askew.
"Stop!" My mind went blank. I lunged forward without thinking.
Before I could reach him, two burly, black-clad bodyguards sprang out from the side and pinned me down, one on each side. No matter how I struggled, I couldn't break free.
"Let go of me! Gideon! I'll kill you!" I screamed, veins bulging in my neck.
Eliana came running up, stepping between us. "Jared! Don't be rash! Calm down!"
"Calm down?" I shouted. "You expect me to stay calm while this lunatic digs up my mother's grave?!"
She averted her eyes, speaking with the weary tone she always used. "Because of your punch, Gideon's condition has worsened. He can't be provoked—you have to understand!"
