Chapter 22
Ren
Taking two trays from the tall stack, I handed one to Ivy as we moved through the lunch line.
“Is he looking over here?” Ivy whispered.
I assumed she meant either Zigzag or Sabastian. They were sitting at opposite ends of the cafeteria like two fighters waiting for the bell to ring so they could go at it.
“Which one?”
“Um…I guess either,” Ivy answered, and I looked over my shoulder at her.
She just shrugged. Giving in to the insanity, I turned to see if either of them was looking this way. She grabbed my arm, and I almost lost all my food.
“No, don’t look. I don’t want them to know I’m looking.”
Ivy shook my arm, and my bowl of soup was precariously close to spilling.
“You’re not. I am,” I said, gently tugging out of her death grip. “You’re going to spill my lunch.”
She let go, but her eyes were still a little wild.
“Yeah, but if they see you looking, then they’ll know that I’m talking about them.”
“You are.”
“I know, but I don’t want them to know that,” she said.
“Well then, don’t look now, Sabastian is on his way over here,” I whispered.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” she mumbled, making me smirk.
It was nice to live the normal teenage drama through Ivy. Maybe when I turned seventy, I could gossip about who wore it best or about something completely ridiculous, because so far my childhood had been filled with far too much…adulting.
“Hey,” Sabastian said when he reached us.
“Hey. Did you have a nice weekend,” I asked, and then nudged Ivy’s shoulder to no avail.
Ivy had stopped moving—she was barely breathing.
“It was okay, I guess. Went to a party at Sacred Heart,” Sabastian said, and that got her attention.
Ivy slowly turned around to face him like some creepy mannequin on a display stand. She crossed her arms and glared at Sabastian. I looked between them and tried to back away, but Ivy grabbed my arm.
Okay, this wasn’t what I meant by living vicariously through her drama. This was a little more involved than I wanted to be.
“You went without me,” she asked, and Sabastian tilted his head.
“You kissed someone else, got pissed with me when I decked the fucker and then broke up with me. Why wouldn’t I go without you?”
Oh god.
“I see,” she growled, and then started to drag me to the table.
I pointed at the cutlery on the way by, but she wasn’t stopping, and it was probably better that she didn’t have a weapon.
“Ivy, I want to talk to you,” Sabastian said as he followed us. “Why do you keep walking away?”
“Okay…I’m leaving you two alone,” I said, pulling Ivy to a halt.
Her eyes begged me to stay, but I shook my head.
“You two need to sort yourselves out, and I really don’t want to be in the middle.”
Ivy’s eyes softened, and she reluctantly let go of me.
“You’ve got this,” I said, patting Sabastian’s arm as I left.
Liam walked in, and I moved to intercept him. He smirked and stared at my strange combination of food choices.
“I couldn’t decide what I wanted, and Myles always eats half of my lunch anyway,” I said as he plucked the tray from my hands.
“I’ll take this before you make a mess,” Liam teased.
“I thought you liked it when I made a mess,” I said, and then laughed at the shocked look on Liam’s face.
It was hard to knock him off his game, so it was a major win for me.
“I do, but not usually with soup,” he said, his eyes roaming down my body.
“Okay, take the tray, but we aren’t sitting at our usual table. That is one threesome I want to avoid.”
With a chuckle, Liam placed his hand on the small of my back and guided us out of the cafeteria to one of the new lounges in the main entrance hall. It was coffee-shop inspired with a few couches. But there were some bistro tables that no one was using.
Liam pulled out a chair for me, then set the tray down on the table.
“Such a gentleman,” I said teasingly.
My body shivered as he used a finger to brush the hair away from the side of my neck. I bit my lip as his warm breath fanned my ear.
“Gentlemen don’t scheme about how fast they can make you tremble. I do. And when I get you upstairs, you’ll understand exactly what that means, Little Rabbit.”
His voice was so controlled, and yet there was a rough edge that had me crossing my legs under the table.
“Now…what do you say?”
“Yes, sir,” I whispered.
“That’s my good girl,” he growled, kissing my neck before pulling away and sitting down.
My heart rate had gone from zero to a million. Holy hell…I needed a fan.
I picked up my package of crackers and crushed them, but my hands were noticeably shaking as I tried to pull the plastic open.
Liam reached out to still the trembling. He stared into my eyes and held me in place with that single look as he plucked the crackers from my fingers.
“Have you decided if you’re going to reach out to your grandfather,” he asked, opening the pack and dumping the crackers into my soup for me.
I shook my head and stared into the bowl of vegetable soup.
Liam touched my chin, forcing me to look up at him.
“You don’t have to do anything.”
“I know, but if I preach that people can change, how can I so easily dismiss a gesture like the painting he sent…or the note. It felt genuine, but he singlehandedly destroyed my mother and father’s relationship.
That act set in motion everything else that has happened.
I’m just not sure opening that door is wise. ”
Liam rubbed my cheek with his thumb and then seamlessly stole my French fries as he pulled them to his side of the table.
I smirked at him. This was why I filled my tray. There had been too many times that I’d grabbed an apple only to have someone eat half of it. Bunch of thieves.
“Have you talked to your father about the painting?”
“No. It feels like a scab I should leave covered until I make up my mind. No need to pick at old wounds if there is no need.”
“Fair, but I don’t think you need to protect your father.
He is…one of the steadiest and most resilient people I’ve ever met.
It’s easy to see where you get it from,” Liam said, and the spoon stilled on the way to my mouth.
His lips curved up. “Don’t look so surprised, Little Rabbit. I don’t fall in love with just anyone.”
Liam winked, and heat spread across my cheeks until my ears burned.
“You have an unfair superpower, Liam Hicks,” I mumbled.
He sat back in his chair, and the look in his eyes could dissolve underwear everywhere.
“What power is that?”
“Stop it, you know what you’re doing,” I ordered, but instead he ran his bottom lip through his teeth.
My mind blanked as I tried to think of something smart to say. I jumped when someone approached the table. Dean Henry’s face was somber when I looked up.
“I need you to come with me,” he said softly, and my spoon dropped into my soup.
“What’s wrong,” I asked, terror immediately choking off my air supply.
“Someone is here to speak to you,” Dean Henry said.
I looked at Liam, then back up at the dean, who gave nothing away.
“I’ll come with you,” Liam said, and I nodded.
Lunch forgotten, we followed Dean Henry to his office.
Liam kept his hand on my back, his warm touch comforting. It was the second time in two weeks that I had been called into the dean’s office. A new record for me.
We stepped inside and found a man sitting in one of the chairs with his back to us.
The door closed with a soft click as he stood and turned, and I was very glad that Liam had come with me.
He might be twenty years older than the pictures we found in my mother’s room, but there was no mistaking Vadin Mikhailov…
my grandfather. He was dressed in an expensive grey suit, just a shade darker than his hair.
His blue eyes were glacial, and despite his age, he stood tall, his shoulders back and hands clasped in front of him.
“Hello, Lilya, it has been a long time,” Vadin said.
He didn’t smile or try to hug me, and with just a glance, he took our measure.
My pulse pounded loud in my ears, but I kicked the shock to the side and stepped forward, appraising him with the same cool stare he had given me.
Thoughts of my mother crying filled my mind. Wanting to know anything about Vadin felt like a traitorous act now that I was face-to-face with him.
“Dean Henry says that you received my gift.”
“It was never your gift to give, but yes, it arrived,” I said, and the tiniest crack in his exterior showed with the lift of his lip.
“You certainly have your mother’s spirit,” he said.
“Are you here to try and break mine like you tried to break hers?”
The room was silent except for the clock in the corner, ticking each second like a time bomb.
“I don’t think her spirit could ever be broken. As I said in my note, I have many regrets now that I’ve had time to look back and reflect on what is and is not important. What transpired between your mother and me is one of those regrets.”
He stepped forward, and I felt Liam tense beside me.
“Lilya, you have no reason to trust me. And you don’t owe me anything. But would you entertain having a coffee with me?”
I glanced at Dean Henry, but his feelings on the matter were hidden behind his stoic demeanor.
If I was going to be queen, I needed to handle difficult conversations like this one and make important decisions like a leader. Hiding out at Wayward and wishing that all these terrible things would just go away wasn’t practical.
“I’ll think about it,” I said.
Vadin reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a business card.
“You can reach me at this number.”
I still didn’t know if this was a good idea, but I took the card.
“Will you walk me out?”
“Sure,” I said, and glanced up at Liam.
The look in his eyes told me all I needed to know…he wasn’t letting me out of his sight, and I loved him all the more for it.