Chapter Ten
VEIL STOOD IN HIS STUDY, staring at the shattered glass on the floor, the whiskey tumbler he’d thrown the moment she left, and tried to convince himself he’d done the right thing.
The crystal had exploded against the far wall. Whiskey was soaking into the antique rug. Expensive damage.
He didn’t care.
Her face.
He couldn’t stop seeing her face.
The way she’d paled when he said that thing about her virginity, the way her eyes had gone dead, like he’d killed something vital inside her.
And the kiss. The way she’d kissed him like she was handing him everything she had, trembling and clumsy and brave, and he’d let her, let her pour her heart into it, and then—
But that kiss...is overrated.
He’d said that. He’d actually said that to her face.
Good.
She was engaged. Still engaged. Playing him for a fool while her fiancé was on his way to claim her.
Except his chest ached.
His hands shook.
This didn’t feel like victory.
This felt like he’d just destroyed something precious.
No. She lied to him. Lied by omission. Let him fall in love with her while technically still belonging to—
The door slammed open.
No knock. Just his mother barging in, her face furious, her hands already flying through signs so fast Veil could barely follow.
‘You wouldn’t believe it, Veil, but that horrible man actually has the nerve to come here!’
“What man?” His voice came out rough. Tired.
‘Joseph Prince! The one who broke her heart!’
He stiffened. So that man...broke her heart but she had remained engaged to him? Did she really love that man so damn much that—
‘Do you know Evianne caught him cheating on the very day she was to start working here?’
Veil went still.
‘At the airport. She thought I didn’t know. But I saw what she saw.’
His mother’s hands slowed down now. Moved more deliberately. Like she was making sure he understood every word.
‘She saw him kissing another woman. Her own cousin, Glenda. And she just...broke. She couldn’t make herself confront him. She was too destroyed. So she pocketed her ring on the plane, cried herself sick, and flew here with me.’
Veil suddenly had a hard time breathing—
‘She never answered his calls. Never went back. Never planned to.’
A hard time thinking.
‘She ended it the moment she saw him betray her. She just couldn’t make herself say the words—’
“Mother.” Veil’s voice barely worked as he cut her off. “I need you to start from the beginning.”
She looked at him oddly.
“Please.”
But at that one word, his mother simply nodded.
Because that was how she had always been.
Empathetic and intuitive...
His mother started signing the whole story.
In a way that he had never been...and maybe that was why he had ended up possibly making the biggest mistake of his life.
Geena suddenly paused, her hands hovering in the air like she was deciding whether to continue.
‘There’s something else you should know about that man.’
“What?”
‘The way he treated her.’ His mother’s expression became pained. ‘Do you know what he used to say to her about her virginity?’
Veil’s blood went cold.
‘He mocked her for it. Called her a tease. Said she was using it to manipulate him, to control him.’ His mother’s hands moved sharply, angrily. ‘He made her feel dirty for wanting to wait for someone who would cherish her. Made her feel like there was something wrong with her for having standards.’
No. God. No.
‘He weaponized her choice every chance he got. Made her feel like she was the problem. Like saving herself was some kind of character flaw instead of a gift.’
His world stopped turning at just about the same time his mother’s signed words came to an unexpected end. “Oh, Veil—” She was speaking out loud in her dismay. “You’ve done something...haven’t you?”
He couldn’t speak.
Couldn’t form the words.
Because every sentence his mother had just signed was playing against his own words in his head, side by side, like a mirror held up to a monster.
‘Joseph mocked her for it.’
I only pretended to want you so I could take your virginity.
‘He made her feel dirty for wanting to wait.’
But that kiss...is overrated.
‘He weaponized her choice every chance he got.’
You’re fired. Now get out.
‘Veil.’ His mother’s hands were shaking now. ‘Tell me.’
“I told her—” His voice cracked. Broke. He had to force the words out like shards of glass. “I told her I only pretended to want her so I could take her virginity.”
His mother’s hands dropped to her sides.
“I told her the kiss was overrated. I fired her. I told her to get out.”
Silence.
The kind that follows a detonation.
‘She came to you.’ His mother’s signs were slow now, each one weighted with something worse than anger. ‘She came to apologize. She kissed you. That girl was so terrified of trusting another man, and she chose to be brave, and you—’
“I know.”
‘You used the exact same weapon he used.’
“I know.”
He had no words to defend himself. And frankly, he had no intention of doing so either. Nothing he did was worth defending.
But even so...
Geena wasn’t surprised when her son excused himself and walked out of the study without another word. That look on his face said everything. He was going to grovel, and she prayed—oh, how she was praying now—that it was not yet too late for the both of them.