EPILOGUE
Harry
One month later
The bitter wind is cold against my skin, and I push my hands deep into my jacket pockets to try to maintain the warmth. It’s the coldest winter we’ve had in years, but as I spot Gigi standing in the centre of the park, all I feel is warmth.
It suddenly feels like a summer’s day.
She tucks her chin to her chest, her hands stuffed into her armpits. I walk up to her quickly and wrap my arms around her from behind. Gigi jumps at the contact, but I bury my face into the crook of her neck, struggling to let go. It’s the first time I’ve seen her since that night at the mansion. She’s been too busy with work to meet me.
“Hello, baby,” I whisper into her hair.
She mumbles something under her breath that I can’t quite hear, but it causes me to pull back. When I see the distant look in her eyes, the coldness of her expression, concern tightens my stomach into knots.
I tilt her chin up with my fingers. “Is everything okay?”
Gigi turns away, fighting my gaze, but I can already see her tears glistening in the sunrays. My fingers find her chin and I tug her face back in my direction, noticing the pink of her nose and the darkness under her eyes.
There’s something wrong. And all my concern that she was ignoring me for weeks suddenly comes racing back to the surface.
“I can’t believe you.”
I frown. “What are you—?”
“Why didn’t you tell me Richard was my father?”
I retract my hands from her skin as if they’re on fire.
Gigi’s expression is blank. Unreadable.
But she knows.
She knows I’ve committed the ultimate sin; kept the deepest of secrets from her, the woman I claim to love yet continue to betray. It’s like a toxic trait I’ve mastered. And in the midst of it all, it’s not the last one I’m harbouring under the surface.
“When did you find out?” I ask.
Her body recoils with disgust as she fights my gaze.
“Say something, baby,” I plead, the panic that I’m losing her closing in.
Releasing a shaky exhale, she says with eerie stability, “I thought he was lying at first … A part of me believed you wouldn’t lie to me again . After everything.” Turning to me slowly, with ice in her expression, she adds, “But that’s all you are. You’re a filthy liar. And you’ll never change.”
How could I have been the one to break the news that her blood is tainted with evil? How could I have been the one to utterly wreck her by confessing her life is littered with secrets and truths she’ll never understand?
I catch her arm before she can leave. “Let me explain.”
“Get off me,” she demands, pulling herself free.
“They’ve got their hands on you again. You don’t know what he’s—”
“What he’s hiding from me?” She thinks she’s finishing my sentence for me. “I know the secrets you’ve been keeping about Jack.”
I shake my head, desperation in my voice. “Give me a chance to—”
“I’m giving you the opportunity to leave. ”
“Gigi, please …”
“You kept things from me, Harry. Dark secrets. You’ve always known more about my family than you’ve let on.” Her face morphs into a lethal calm. She looks the darkest and most disassociated I’ve ever seen her look. “Leave. Because I promise you, the next time I see you, I won’t be so forgiving. The next time I see you … I’ll kill you.”