"By hurting her?" he asked. "She will live her days in misery and will come to resent you. Doesn’t that story sound familiar? The only difference is that you haven’t put a child in her that she would hate."
"Don’t liken me to my father, Andrew. I will not stand for it," he warned. "I am nothing like him. He was a monster."
"Why not?" Andrew mocked. "You’re doing the exact same thing to Alice that he did with your mother."
"You have no right!" Victor glared. "No right! You weren’t there. You didn’t see what happened."
"No I wasn’t, but I can tell from how you act that you have stepped into the shoes of the man you claim to hate."
Victor lunged at him but missed and was shoved into the corner.
"You push away any and everyone who shows even the slightest hint of concern for you. Hell, the only reason we’re still friends is because I’m the only one who gives you the pain you continue to feel you deserve," Andrew continued. "I will no longer serve as your purveyor. You have grown past letting his sick words keep you in this prison. You are not what he said you are."
"I am worse, Andrew. I ruin everything I touch, and I do not want to harm her. She doesn’t have to suffer being bound to me," he argued. "I am trying to save her from my family’s curse. From me. I have no love to give her."
"You keep saying that, yet she loves you anyway."
"She doesn’t love me."
"Why else do you think she has stayed despite your conflicting attitude?" Andrew questioned. "I saw how you looked at her at the garden party. You are taken with her also. I watched you nearly lose your head over her speaking to another man. It is more than possession you feel."
"You’re being ridiculous."
"And you’re being a coward."
"For someone who doesn’t believe in love, you’re a staunch advocate of it."
"I am tired of seeing you this way," Andrew sighed, chest deflating with the act. "You deserve happiness, Victor. For once in your life I need you to see that."
They fell into a silence that was pregnant with unspoken words, but neither was willing to break it.
"She deserves a better life than anything I could give her."
"You do not know that."
"I do and that’s why I stay away to protect her. I cannot divorce her so she isn’t shamed by society, but I can at least give her room to live her life free of my influence."
"You might think your actions are noble, but they achieve the opposite. You only hurt her by your constant denial of what exists between you two," Andrew said, looking unlike the nonchalant friend he had grown up with. "Plus, you told her you only married her to get your inheritance. Have you asked her what she hoped to gain from this marriage apart from escaping her parents?"
He frowned, knowing he hadn’t even thought to, but buried the emotion that came with it. He had already made his bed; unfortunately, they would both have to lie in it.
"I…"
A knock on the door saved him from another round of scolding from his friend, and he was grateful for that.
"Enter."
The door opened to reveal Higgins, Andrew’s butler.
"Yes?"
"Pardon my intrusion, Your Grace, but there’s someone here to see you."
"I’m not expecting anyone," Andrew said, confused. "Who is it?"
"He says his name is Roberts, the Duke of Ravenmoor's butler."
Both their eyes went wide with surprise.
