34. CHAPTER 31 #2
“You wanted something done about your precious Yves,” I went on. “You wanted answers. You were in my house, wearing my ring, and instead of coming to me, you trusted outsiders.”
Her eyes flared. “I didn’t want—”
“You didn’t want me,” I cut in. “You didn’t want to owe me. You didn’t want to admit that I could solve the problem.”
She opened her mouth. No words came. Whatever she meant to say stayed between us, unspoken and heavy.
My nerves buzzed as I watched the day unraveling in my hands. This morning she’d been asleep in my arms. Now she stood across from me like a stranger accusing me of mercy.
If Yves were standing in front of me right now, I would have ended it just to silence his name.
“You don’t get to decide what parts of my life you control,” she said.
“And you don’t get to pretend you don’t benefit from it,” I retorted. “You’re safe. He’s gone. And you’re still standing here arguing instead of asking why.”
Her voice dropped. “Why?”
The ‘whys’ were screaming in my head, a thousand confessions I wasn't ready to make.
Because I’d rather be a monster in your eyes than let a coward touch you ever again.
The very thought of his hands on you felt like a slow-acting poison in my veins. And after I watched you run, I swore to every god I don’t believe in that I'd never let the world make you flee again.
Because I chose you Léa. My Léa—fully, finally, and without a safety net—even when you're still looking for a way out. Even when you won’t choose me.
And still I would burn this entire city to the ground just to make sure you had a clear path to walk on.
I said none of it.
Instead, I looked at her and let the cold distance fall back into place.
“Too late."
LéONIE
I’d never seen him like this.
Orion didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t pace or slam anything. But the way he stood behind that desk wasn’t calm, it was as if he was holding himself in check. His usual fa?ade of control was starting to strain.
It unsettled me. It intrigued me. It scared me. It… pulled at an unconscious part of me.
But I needed closure about Yves, even if Orion was losing his composure for the first time since I’d known him. I wasn’t going to drop it now. Not after weeks of dread, guilt and restlessness.
So I asked, and he tried to keep his composure, but I could see the slight tremor in his hand before he fisted it.
“What do you mean ‘too late’?” I questioned, stepping back, but he didn't let me.
He moved closer to me until the air between us vanished. I was suddenly hit by the scent of him—that expensive cologne—but it was mixed with the cold air of the space and the intense metallic heat of his fury. It was an overwhelming, suffocating mix that made my head swim.
“If you really wanted to know why, you wouldn’t have sought out Cassian Vassier in the first place,” he snapped, his voice a dangerous rasp.
He leaned in until we were inches apart, his shadow swallowing me.
“He’s a business rival, Léonie. You can’t ask him for anything.
I know you’re friends with Céleste… but if you need something, you come to me first.”
Léonie. Not Léa.
The distance in that name sliced me deeper than the tone he said it in.
“I didn’t ask Cassian directly,” I said, attempting to keep my voice even. “Every communication went through Céleste.”
There wasn't any point stating the obvious. He already knew that.
If he knew Cassian was helping, then he knew whose hands it actually passed through.
Why didn’t he say anything?
All this time he must have known I was inquiring about Yves. He must have known Cassian was following whatever trail he had set up. But he never bothered confronting me about it.
I wasn’t sure what to make of his silence.
“So we’re back to arguing again,” I said, heat rising in my throat. “Just when I thought we were getting somewhere.”
“Well, I didn’t start it. You did—because you wouldn’t let him go.”
“I was the reason he was hurt!” I yelled. “Forgive me for not wanting to move on happily while someone I put in danger was probably dead in a ditch somewhere!”
“You put him in danger?” Orion barked out a bitter laugh. “He risked your life. He risked the life of the only person in the world I wanted to protect. He’s lucky I showed him mercy. He’s lucky he’s still breathing.”
My heart stuttered.
The only person?
I wanted to reject it. I also wanted to cling to it, because God, I woke up this morning with his scent on my pillow, and Mrs. Lewis whispering that he’d left my room at dawn.
My skin still tingled from where his body had been.
The intense reluctance I felt pulling myself out of bed, because all I wanted to do was live with his scent on my bed till he returned.
I’d spent the entire morning excited—glowing, even. I couldn’t wait for him to get back. Until Céleste’s message shattered everything.
And now this.
“Maybe it was a mistake,” he said suddenly in that cold detached voice I hated.
What part of all this was a mistake? Keeping Yves alive? Or us?
My patience snapped. It was the sound of every door I’d opened for him slamming shut at once. I had been waiting for the man who held me last night to come home, not this stranger looking at me with regret laced in his eyes.
The fact that I was on my knees for him last night sent humiliation pulsing through my veins, a hot, stinging poison.
It was naive to think someone like Orion would allow himself to stay human for more than a few hours. While I’d thought we were building something; he probably thought he was just having a lapse in judgement.
“I hate you,” I breathed, before I could stop myself—before my mind caught up to my mouth. I could literally feel my chest caving, proof my heart was failing me.
He’ll never see me cry. I turned to storm out.
“Léa…get back here. Léonie.”
I didn’t stop.
Two strides and his hand caught my arm. He turned me and pressed me to the wall, the impact driving the breath from my lungs. I swallowed to push back the lump forming in my throat, and the sting behind my eyes.
“Say it again,” he ground out.