“Stop saying we. I don’t care about them. I came to see you. I trusted you!”
The room was silent as Alistair’s outburst echoed against the gilded walls.
“I came to see you,” Alistair said again. Stupid, burning tears in her eyes.
“And I’m here,” Bolden finally answered in her same calm, reassuring tone. “And you can trust me.”
Alistair lifted her head against crashing waves of nausea and hurt. She could see the others in the distance, watching them, lined up like three pins waiting for someone to pick up a spare. It didn’t matter. It hurt too much to care.
“Have you always been lying to me?”
“What?”
“Since the phone calls? Or since my treatment? Did they tell you to be in my life, like Ed? Was that your job? Were you helping me, or were you always testing me?”
“Both,” Bolden said,
