Delilah blinks, slow. “What photo?”
“Don’t play dumb. You said it came anonymously. Who sent it?”
Her mouth opens, then shuts. Her gaze flicks to the window, the night sky black beyond the glass, then drops to the floor.
“I don’t know,” she says at last. “It just… showed up.”
“Try again.”
“I swear, Gideon. I didn’t make it. I didn’t even question it. I thought you deserved to see it.”
“You doctored it.”
Her lips part, then seal again. Her eyes dart to the candle, the wine glass, the door behind me.
“You lied,” I say, my voice low, steady. “You knew exactly what you were doing.”
“I was protecting you,” she murmurs, stepping closer. “You were spiraling. You needed someone to ground you.”
“Ground me from what? From the woman I planned to marry?” My voice cracks.
“She wasn’t good enough for you,” Delilah snaps, nostrils flaring. “She never was. I’ve always loved you.”
I laugh, bitter, hollow. “You watched me walk away. You let me believe she betrayed me. You humiliated her.”
“She would’ve hurt you eventually.”
“No one has hurt me likeyou.”
Her mask fractures. “I didn’t mean for it to go this far.”
What?! She knew exactly what she was doing.
“You meant every word,” I say, her triumphant laughter still ringing in my ears.
Delilah collapses to her knees. Mascara streaks her cheeks; tears shimmer in the candlelight. She looks ruined, ragged, utterly alone.
“Please,” she sobs, voice strangled. “Please don’t leave me. We belong together.”
I step back. Her trembling hands reach for me, fingertips brushing the hem of my coat.
“I don’t love you,” I say, each word a blade. “I will never love you.”
Her gasp ricochets off the walls. She folds inward, shoulders quaking.
“You don’t mean that,” she whispers. “You’re just angry.”
“I mean every word.”
“We can fix this,” she pleads, crawling forward like a wounded animal. “I’ll tell Lara the truth. I’ll explain everything. I’ll make it right.”
“You can’t fix what you shattered.”
“I did it for us,” she chokes, tears pooling on the hardwood. “I did it because I love you.”
“You did it to win.”
“I did it because I couldn’t stand to watch you marry someone who doesn’t see you the way I do.”
