Chapter 71 Chapter 71
Violet
I shook my head as I pulled my suitcase and began stuffing my clothes or rather throwing them without a care into the open suitcase.
“I just have to go. I told you about my job.”
I gave her an excuse and when she opened her mouth again, I looked at her with a mixture of anger and guilt.
“Please! Just leave me alone!”
I said and I felt my voice choke. I hated to sound so weak and vulnerable but somehow my stupid heart couldn’t continue acting indifferent.
It still bloody hurt.
“Wait a damn minute! She called him Nate. Is that your Nate?”
Cassie finally seemed to have caught on.
“He isn’t mine. Never was”
“Okay, but can you please leave tomorrow at least? It's quite late at night and we haven’t even checked any flight options.”
“I didn’t care. I would spend the night at the airport waiting area if needed.”
“I know it got postponed quite a few times and you didn’t really like the dress or the…”
“Cassie!” I leveled my gaze at her.
“I have listened to you even if it didn’t suit me but now I want you to respect my wish and leave if you still want me to call you a friend.”
She had opened her mouth to plead again but the force of my words felt like a verbal slap that smacked her in the face.
Cassie lowered her hand and took a step back, hurt apparent on her face.
I hadn’t intended to hurt her but I ended up doing it anyway. She squared her shoulders and nodded.
“Alright. Then I am coming with you. We are leaving together.”
“No, I dont…” I began but then I heard footsteps stop outside the door of my room.
I looked up to see Elijah standing there, shoulders tense and face rigid.
“Nobody is going anywhere tonight” Elijah said, looking at me and then turned his attention to Cassie.
“I need to talk to her alone.”
Cassie threw him a bewildered look.
“What are you going to say to her that I haven’t already?”
He didn’t answer her but instead repeated. “Leave Cassie. Now!”
She looked back at me once, threw her hands up in despair and smacked them upon her thighs before storming out of the room.
Stepbrother.
The word replayed in my head long after the voices around me blurred into meaningless sound. I recalled every moment where he had taunted and baited me, how he had turned my sorrow into his amusement.
I lifted the suitcase and placed it back on the floor but Elijah had already closed the door, locking us both inside and was standing in front of it.
I shot him a venomous glare and said in a barely controlled voice.
“Step aside or I will wake your parents up and then you are going to give them an explanation.”
But he took a step forward in my direction instead.
“Please, just give me five minutes.”
Five minutes. That is what he wanted again.
Just like last time when his warriors had called me names and he had let them. This time he had kept a secret from me.
Despite knowing how it would affect me.
“To do what? Listen you ramble about how you were sorry I went through shit and how you could do nothing to avoid your stepsister’s spontaneous arrival? Leave!”
I lashed out at him, the suitcase thudding loudly upon the floor.
“That and more. Please, I can explain.”
“So you are not even denying that you knew what was going to happen and let it all unfold anyway? After taunting me for days about how I was hung up on that bastard and how you didn’t want leftovers?”
I said, fighting to keep my voice even. My body was shaking and I curled my hands into fists because I feared I would punch and slap until the rage and hurt morphed into one ugly feeling.
“I never said that last line, Vi.”
“Violet! My name is Violet.”
I said marching towards him and poking a finger at him.
I was furious and I wanted nothing more than to take out all my anger on him, all the frustration that I had accumulated for hours sitting at the table and getting humiliated.
“Violet” Elijah repeated, reaching out with his hand to cup my face but I slapped it away.
“Tell me how it feels to see your grand plan become successful? What did you expect to see? A weak and pathetic girl dissolving in tears to learn that the woman who stole her boyfriend is somehow related to the man she needed an alliance from, the man that she had begun to trust and ....”
I stopped short, refusing to say the words out loud.
Elijah had been listening to me keenly and raised an eyebrow.
“Trust and what? Complete your line, Violet.”
He closed the distance between us and I could swear I heard my heart beating faster than ever, thudding wildly against the ribcage and wanting to spring free of its cage.
Elijah stood towering over me with his huge frame, his dark eyes boring into mine. His gaze was searching and for a few minutes neither of us said a word.
We simply stood there, looking at each other.
Slowly, I felt him raise his hand, his fingers brushing my elbow but I immediately stepped back.
Nearness and sex was not a way to always end any misunderstanding. And this was even greater than a misunderstanding.
This was a carefully hidden secret. I would not let him wriggle out of this easily.
“You needed five minutes. Talk.”
I said my voice even as I folded my hands on my chest.
Elijah looked at me for so long, I wondered if he was going to spend those five minutes just staring at me.
But finally, he opened his mouth.
This is the reason I didn’t want a family dinner. This is why I broke all contact with my family and moved to another city.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Because you knew you would meet someone who was the ex of a girl your stepsister stole from?”
I wasn’t that stupid.
“No, because Alpha Alaric has a habit of giving in to his daughters’ whims easily. He has a soft spot for daughters. Sons…not so much.”
Elijah answered and my brain raced through the past to connect the dots. I recalled how Elijah kept denying to attend the event and how Cassie kept pushing him. But this was not his pity party, it was mine.
“How are you even related to Nicole?”
I asked the question that had been lingering in my mind for hours.
“Its rather simple really. The way you needed an alliance and offered marriage, so did Nicole’s mother after her husband died in a pack attack and she needed support. Alpha Alaric took in Nicole and her mother solely to take over their pack and failing businesses, converting those businesses into money minting machines for himself.”
That made sense…in a weird kind of way.
“So you knew she was coming?” I asked sharply.