"Is that all she is?" His eyes narrow slightly. "Just their god-daughter?"
"What else would she be?" I counter, hating the lie, the only real lie I've told him since his return.
Phoenix steps closer. "I find it strange that your parents would express such concern for a child who isn't even theirs while barely asking about their own daughter."
I let out a humorless laugh. "You want me to explain the inner workings of my parents' minds? I can't. You should know that better than anyone."
His expression remains skeptical, and I feel panic rising. I need to divert him, quickly.
"How many times did I tell you how unhappy I was with them? How many nights did I cry to you about their coldness, their control? And if not that, their indifference? I was invisible to them if I wasn’t of use to them."
Phoenix's expression softens slightly at the reminder.
"You promised to take me away from them," I say, the memory still painfully vivid. "Do you remember? You said once you finished college, you'd come for me, and we'd build a life together far from both our families."
I see the flicker of recognition in his eyes, the memory hitting home.
"I remember.”
"Then you understand why I can't explain their priorities or their concern for Brigit over me. They've never put me first. Not once in my entire life. Hell, they gave me to you in exchange for their lives. And you agreed, not because you want me like you once did. No, I’m a pawn to you just as I am for them. So who’s really betrayed whom here, Phoenix?"
“I suppose we both have reasons to resent the other.”
“You think?” I’m so tired of all this.
“I meant what I said before about creating a workable marriage.”
“And I’ll do what I can. I know my place. My role.”
Frustration flickers in his eyes. “I don’t mean that.” He lets out a breath, his gaze lingering on my face in a way that makesmy traitorous heart skip a beat. "Do you think we could ever get back what we had? Not just the arrangement we have now, but what we truly had before. The love."
The question catches me completely off guard. After everything, the humiliation, the accusations, the forced marriage, he's asking if we could rekindle what we once shared?
Is that what he wants? Or is this a ploy? "I don't understand. You've made it clear how you feel about me. About my family."
He steps closer, close enough that I can smell his cologne. "The other night together… Was that just compliance? Or was there something real between us?"
My pulse quickens as I remember the heat of his skin against mine, how for those brief moments, I'd let myself believe we were the people we used to be.
"I don't know what you want me to say," I answer honestly. "One minute, you're treating me like the enemy, the next, you're in my bed. And when it’s done, you’re accusing me of being with another man. How am I supposed to know what's real anymore?"
His jaw tightens slightly. "I'm asking what's real for you, Keira."
The question sends a wave of conflicting emotions through me. What's real? The love I never stopped feeling for him, even when I thought he was dead? The hurt and betrayal when he returned only to punish me? The fear I feel every day for Brigit's safety?
"What does it matter what's real for me?" I finally ask. "Is this just another way to punish me? To make me admit I still have feelings for you so you can use them against me?"
Phoenix's expression shifts, something like pain flickering across his features. "Is that what you think I'm doing?"
"I don't know what to think anymore. You say you want to know if we could get back what we had, but I don't even know if you actually care about me. Or if I'm just a means to an end."
Phoenix's hand rises slowly, hesitantly, before coming to rest against my cheek. His touch is gentle, so at odds with the harshness he's shown since his return. I should pull away. Every rational part of me screams to step back, to protect myself from falling into this again.
But I don't move.
"Keira," he whispers, my name a caress on his lips. His thumb traces the curve of my cheekbone, and I feel myself leaning into his touch, betrayed by my own heart’s memory of him.
"Phoenix…" I want to pull away, but my eyes flutter closed as I savor his touch.
