Chapter 9
Elise was angrier with me than with Vivian that afternoon.
That surprised me.
Then I realized it should not have.
We sat in our bedroom.
Her sleeve was rolled down again.
The bruise hidden.
I hated that.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“You want the answer you’ll like?”
“No.”
“You were gone too much.”
There it was.
I nodded.
She continued.
“Not physically all the time.”
I frowned.
“You were here.”
That hurt more.
“You were at the other end of the estate.”
My chest tightened.
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“I tried.”
I stared.
“When?”
“Twice.”
She described both.
One night I was in a closed council.
Nolan told her I had ordered no interruptions.
I had not.
Another time, Vivian stopped her in the hallway and told her I was tired of “pregnancy drama.”
I had never said that either.
My name again.
But Elise did not stop there.
“Then I stopped trying.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
Her eyes filled.
“Because part of me believed them.”
Silence.
That was mine.
Not because I said the words.
Because I had created enough distance that the lie fit.
I sat beside her.
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head.
“Don’t make it pretty.”
Fair.
“I should have noticed.”
“Yes.”
There.
No easy absolution.
“I should have asked why you stopped eating dinner with everyone.”
“Yes.”
“I should have noticed the bruise.”
“Yes.”
“I should have noticed you were afraid of the dining room.”
Her face broke.
“Yes.”
I took her hand only after she reached first.
That mattered now.
Then she said:
“I don’t need you to become my guard.”
I looked at her.
“I need you to believe me before I prove something.”
That sentence stayed.
Tonight I believed because I saw bones.
A bruise.
Six witnesses.
What if she had come with only discomfort?
Only fear?
Would I have treated it as enough?
I did not know.
I hated that answer.
May you like
So I made myself one promise.
Next time, she would not need evidence before I listened.
