“You had proof,” I said to Jaxon after a moment.
“Yes.” he responded carefully to me.
“And you still did not tell me.”
His face tightened. “I was trying to build enough to protect you.”
The laugh that left me sounded tired even to my own ears. “There it is again.”
“What?”
“Men making decisions about my life for me and calling it protection.”
His eyes closed briefly. “I deserved that.”
“You deserve worse.”
“I know.”
I hated him and at the same time, I cared for him.
The two truths stood inside me like enemies and neither one would die.
“You should have told me the day you turned it down,” I said. “You should have sat me down and said, Rory, I agreed to help push you out, but now I want to fix it. You should have given me the choice to hate you with all the facts.”
“I was afra
