KEISHA’S POV
I turned and kept walking, not looking back once.
Fuck him. Did he think he could just walk in here and I would welco him with open arms?
"Keisha." He said it again, closer this ti, and then he was in front of and I stopped because there was nowhere to go without physically walking through him.
I looked at him with a frown.
"Five minutes." He pleaded. "Please."
I looked at the corridor behind him. It was empty. Everyone else had filtered out already and it was just us. I thought about what to tell him, tell him to go to hell. But it had been months and I deserved closureㅡ five minutes. I can do five minutes.
"Say what you need to say." I said.
He exhaled and sothing in his shoulders relaxed slightly like he had been holding them up since he walked through the conference room door. "You’re doing well." He muttered. "Better than I thought you would be."
I stared at him.
The anger ca before I even finished processing the words.
"Better than you thought?" I repeated.
He caught it imdiately. "I didn’t an it like that—"
"How did you an it?" I shot back.
"I justㅡ I was worried about you. After everything. I’m glad you’re okay." He said it genuinely and that almost made it worse because I didn’t want genuine from him right now. I didn’t want anything from him.
"I’m fine." I brushed off his words. "Is that all?"
"No." He looked at . "I need you to know that what happened with Maraㅡ it wasn’t what it looked like. The mating was political. My council pushed for it, the alliance required it, I didn’t have the option to—"
"Riven." I cut him off.
He stopped.
"You had months." I said quietly. "So many months and you never once said any of this to . So don’t say it now." I looked at him. "Whatever it was, political or not, you made your choice. And I made mine. I’m here. I’m fine." I said it one more ti and my voice remained steady and firm. "We’re done talking about this."
Sothing like panic moved through his face. "Keisha, just listen to for a second—"
"I’ve been listening." I spat. "The whole eting I sat there, listened, took notes and did my job and I’m done listening now."
"That’s not what I—" He stopped and tried again. "I’m not trying to make excuses. I know what I did. I know how it looked and I know how it felt and I’m not standing here trying to undo it." He looked at properly. "I just need you to know that you were never nothing to . Whatever happened after, whatever decisions I made, that was never the reason."
I looked at him for a long mont.
"Okay." I shrugged.
What the fuck did he expect to say? That I was utterly in love with him? Wrong. I was disgusted that he had the guts to walk up to .
He blinked. "Okay?"
"You weren’t nothing to either." I said. "And you still hurt . Both things are true and neither of them changes anything." I held his gaze. "I’m not angry at you anymore, Riven. I’m just done."
He was quiet.
"We’re done talking about this." I said again in case he didn’t hear the first ti.
Sothing else moved through his face and he took one step toward .
"Don’t." I stepped back.
He stopped, his hand was halfway up, reaching for my arm the way he had done a thousand tis when we were together, casual and familiar.
But this ti, when I looked at it, I felt nothing except the irritation of soone who had moved on and was being reminded of soone who hadn’t.
"Keishaㅡ"
"Is there a problem here?"
I looked up at the voice.
Callum was coming down the corridor with Dane just behind him, two elders at his side and Mara a few steps back, all of them were mid conversation and now, all of them were looking at us.
Callum’s eyes moved from Riven to and then back to Riven, his face blank.
"Not at all." Riven said smoothly, stepping back. "Just catching up."
"Hm." Callum looked at him for one more second, then back at briefly. "Everything alright?"
"Fine." I nodded.
Dane said nothing. His eyes were fixated on and I looked away first under his intense gaze.
Callum turned back to the elders beside him. "Shall we?" He nodded and steered the group forward, the corridor filled with their voices as they discussed.
I didn’t turn to Riven again, I just turned and walked away.
Away from Riven, away from all of them, back toward the communications wing where I had actual work to do and nobody was going to stop in a hallway and tell I was doing better than expectedㅡ
"Excuse ?"
I stopped.
Mara was in front of .
She had appeared from nowhere, like she had been waiting for exactly this mont. Up close she was prettier than she looked across a conference table, her smile wide and warm and so completely fake that I felt unease in my stomach imdiately.
"I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced." She said, "I’m Mara."
"I know who you are." I deadpanned.
Her smile didn’t flicker. "Of course you do." She tilted her head slightly. "I was hoping we could have a little chat. Just the two of us." She glanced back in the direction of the others and then back at . "Privately."
I looked at her and that smile.
There was nothing nice about her. We had never spoken but I could tell she was irritated. And that smile? It held nothing but contempt.
I felt the sudden urge to walk away but sothing about the way she stared at kept rooted to the spot.
"About?" I asked.
She smiled wider. "Girl to girl." She said pleasantly. "Shall we?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)