"Going somewhere?" he asks, his voice deceptively casual.
"Just stretching my legs." I should come up with a better excuse. He probably thinks I’m off to see my phantom lover.
He studies me for a moment, then steps inside, closing the door behind him. He looks tired, the hard lines of his face softened slightly by exhaustion. For a fleeting second, I glimpse the boy I once loved beneath the hardened exterior.
"Did you enjoy shopping today?" he asks, moving further into the room.
"As much as one can enjoy shopping for a wedding they never wanted," I reply, then immediately regret the honesty. "The women were kind. Kinder than I expected."
Phoenix's jaw tightens. "They're good women. My brothers are fortunate."
"Yes. They are." And I envy them.
An awkward silence stretches between us. It makes me wonder what my future sisters-in-law revealed to him.
Feeling surly, I say, "I hope they answered whatever questions you sent them to ask. Did they report back satisfactorily?"
His eyes narrow slightly. "You think I sent them to spy on you?"
"Didn't you?"
Phoenix's expression shifts, becoming unreadable. He steps closer, hands in his pockets, casual but deliberate. "Since you know I wanted information, was what they told me true? Or did you lie to my brothers' wives?" There's something in his eyes, a vulnerability I haven't seen since he returned. Almost as if he's hoping I'll confirm what they said.
I move to the window seat as for some reason it feels like a safe space. "What did they tell you?"
"That you never got over me," he says bluntly. "That you chased away suitors for years because you were waiting for me to come back."
Heat rushes to my face. Of all the things I shared with them, of course that's what they reported back. The one that reveals too much of myself to the man who already dominates me.
"Would it make a difference if it were true?" I ask.
He doesn't answer immediately, just watches me with those piercing blue eyes. "I'd like to know if anything between us was real."
The bitterness of the past decade rises in my throat. "Funny, so would I.”
His eyes narrow. “You think I didn’t care for you?”
I sigh and turn my gaze to look out the window. “I didn't lie to them. I told them exactly what happened. I loved you. I thought you were dead. I couldn't bring myself to love anyone else." I take a steadying breath and return my attention to him. "Butthat doesn't change what's happening now, does it? It doesn't change what you're doing to my family, or that I’m the target for your revenge."
His jaw tightens. "You loved me enough to wait, but not enough to warn me about what your family was planning?"
"I didn't know!” God, how exasperating. “I don’t know how else to make you understand. I did not know what my father and Ronan were doing." I swallow hard, feeling a decade of hurt and betrayal rising to the surface.
I stand up, feeling too keyed up to sit. My hands clench at my sides as I take a step toward him. “Now you answer me. Did you ever really love me, Phoenix?"
His expression hardens. "How can you ask me that?"
"Because if you really loved me, you'd know I'd never have done the things you accuse me of." I study him, seeing the man I once loved but now wondering if he’d loved me the same. Were his words back then empty promises? After all, he didn’t die in the fire and he didn’t come back for me. He didn’t because he believed I was complicit.
"You claim you loved me so much you would have found a way for us to be together regardless of your father's wishes," I continue, unable to stop now that I've started. "But the moment you thought I betrayed you, you believed it without question. You never once considered that I might be innocent."
Phoenix's jaw tightens, his eyes flashing with something I can't quite read.
"The Phoenix I loved would have known I could never hurt him. He would have known I was locked away, powerless to warn him even if I'd known what was coming."
Phoenix's expression shifts, a mixture of anger and something else, confusion, maybe even a hint of regret.
"What did your parents tell you?" he asks, his voice suddenly quiet. "After the fire. What did they say happened?"
