Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
EMILIA
I heard the door open and didn’t even need to look up to know it was him.
Bastion always walked like he had something to prove — or something to outrun.
I was at the kitchen counter, setting down a clean cup of coffee.
Black. No sugar.
The way he took it.
I’d made it without thinking.
Like I always did.
Like I had every morning for weeks .
He paused — just inside the door.
I turned to him, offered a soft smile. “It’s still hot.”
He stared at the cup. Then at me. And something shifted in his jaw. Pure white panic ran through me just from his look.
“Stop doing that,” he snapped.
I blinked. “Doing what?”
“That.” He pointed at the mug, then at me. “ That . Being so— nice . Smiling like we asked for it. Like we asked for you.”
I froze. The mug still in my hand .
His voice rose — sharp, tired, broken at the edges.
“We didn’t invite you here, Emilia. We didn’t ask for our room to be turned into a fucking tea party. We didn’t ask for fresh laundry or fruit platters or your perfect little folded towels.”
“Bastion—” I tried.
“No.” He cut me off. “You think because you smile and bake and hum under your breath that it erases what you did?”
He was pacing now. Fast. Angry. Unraveling .
“You kissed me. In front of everyone . You didn’t ask. You didn’t even look back before you grabbed Luca and kissed him too. You didn’t just burn your own life down — you dragged us into the fire with you.”
The words hit like slaps.
Clean. Cold.
“You think we wanted that?” he spat. “To be the twins that the Adams girl used for drama? You think we wanted every family talking, every one of our cousins whispering, every heir asking if we share now ?”
I couldn’t speak.
“And now we’re stuck. Sharing a room with you. With your pink blankets and your humming and your fucking— smell .”
He ran a hand through his hair, furious. “You ruined our silence . You ruined the only place we had left.”
I felt my throat close.
He kept going.
“You walk around like you belong here. Like it’s a game. Like your reckless kiss didn’t cost us everything we worked for. You act like you’re helping — but you’re just in the way .”
My eyes blurred. I tried to blink it back.
Luca was still by the door.
Quiet. Watching .
But he didn’t stop him.
Not once.
Bastion took one more breath.
Saw me. Really saw me.
And paused.
His eyes flicked to my face.
Saw the glassiness. The tears. The ache I was trying so hard to swallow.
For a second, his expression faltered. But then he just grunted, turned, and walked toward the ensuite.
He slammed the door behind him.
The sound cracked something inside me. I stood there for a long second, holding the coffee mug like it might keep me standing.
It didn’t. I set it down carefully. Picked up my jacket. Grabbed my phone.
And walked out the door.
Because he was right.
I was trained to be nice. To smile when I didn’t want to and brush off insults as if it was water. That was my life.
I wasn’t given a choice to give into my emotions or let my actions be my own. And the one time I did, the one time , I gave in. Reacted. This was the result.
No amount of being nice, would stop this semester being a living hell. I had tried to be nice, I had tried to pretend that this could work.
Now. I was just done.