Chapter 67: Episode 67
“Everything is gone except the bed. Were you planning on getting lucky?”
The joke fell into the hollow room like a lead weight, sinking into the floorboards without a ripple. He didn’t laugh. He didn’t smile. He didn’t even grant her the hollow charity of a pity smirk. Standing there, Lisette felt the sheer, staggering weight of the silence. She hadn’t known what she would find when she finally forced herself to walk through that door.
It had taken her agonizing weeks after being discharged just to look at a car without her lungs seizing. The trauma of the metal casket closing in on her was a ghost that haunted every waking hour. She hadn't wanted to ask for a driver; she didn't want the perceived protection of her father or the silent judgment of AJ. She had needed to do this alone, to prove to herself—and to the man currently staring through her—that she had found the strength to crawl back from the edge of the grave just to reach him.
“When did you get out?” his voice was a flat, mechanical drone.
“Three months ago.”
She moved instinctively to sit on the edge of the mattress, the only island in a sea of empty floor, but Reno’s palm shot up. It wasn't a gesture; it was a barricade. A silent, violent stop sign that froze her in her tracks. The rejection stung worse than the accident ever had. She looked at him, wondering if he held her at bay because the heat of their old attraction still burned too bright to manage, or if he was truly repulsed by the sight of her. She was too terrified of the answer to ask, so she stayed rooted to the spot, a safe, lonely distance away.
“It was two months before I could even manage the crutches,” she offered, her voice trembling. “And weeks of grueling therapy before I could even sit in a passenger seat without screaming.”
For a fleeting, heartbeat-long second, the ice in his brown eyes seemed to hairline-fracture. She thought she saw a shadow of the old Reno—the compassionate man who had held her soul in his hands—peeking through the wreckage. But as quickly as it appeared, the shutter slammed closed, replaced by a glare so frigid it felt like a physical frost.
“What is this actually about, Lisette?”
“I would have come sooner. I swear. I was terrified, Reno. They had to sedate me just to move me from the hospital to the house. I couldn’t trust my own hands on a steering wheel, but I fought that fear every single day because I knew I had to get to you. My father—he said he would send for you, he said he’d make you come—”
“I wouldn’t have come.” He turned his back to her, staring out the window at a city that didn't care about either of them.
“I just—”
“I know what it took for you to show up here today.” He let out a long, ragged sigh, and for the first time, his broad shoulders drooped. The sight of him looking so utterly defeated, so drained of his natural fire, broke something inside her. “It’s the only reason I’m still in this room. It’s the only reason I gave you more than the sixty seconds I promised.”
“Did I do that to you?” Lisette clenched her jaw, biting back the tremor in her lip. A wail was building in the center of her chest, a raw, primal sound of grief, but she choked it down. This wasn't her moment to be the victim. “Did I turn you into this? Someone so cynical... so defeated?”
“I’ve always carried the weight of the world, Lisette. You never changed or impacted a single second of my life.” The lie was an icy slap, intended to draw blood. He paused, the silence stretching until it snapped. “I’m lying. I loved you. I loved you more than my own life, but there is one thing I can never, ever navigate. I cannot forgive betrayal.”
“I never cheated on you! I only said those things so you would leave, so you wouldn't waste your life on a girl who couldn't walk!”
“So, you lied?”
“Yes! To save you from me!”
“And what exactly is stopping me from believing you aren't just lying to me again right now?”
“Because I love you.”
Reno surged to his feet, his fists pressed hard against his thighs as if he were trying to keep himself from shaking. He shook his head, a dark, sardonic smile twisting his features into something unrecognizable. “That used to be my anchor, Lisette. Hearing those words from you used to be the only thing that made sense. Now? They’re just meaningless letters, a sequence of sounds that carry no weight. They are inconsequential.”
“I can prove it.”
One black eyebrow arched upward, a flicker of genuine interest cutting through the spite. She had him.
“You can prove you were lying then, but telling the truth now?” He looked around the barren room. “I didn’t see you lugging a polygraph in here with you. So how exactly do you plan to prove the depth of your honesty—or the scale of your deceit?”
Lisette tried to steady her thundering heart, which felt like a trapped bird beating against her ribs. There was only one way to settle this, one final, undeniable truth that Michael Mathews couldn't touch. She looked past him, her eyes landing on the bed. Reno followed her gaze, realized her meaning, and let out a sharp, dismissive snort.
“It’s the only way, Reno. The only way you'll know for sure.”
“I won’t touch you,” he hissed, the words dripping with a poisonous jealousy. “Not after Michael Mathews pitched his tent between your legs. I won't be his second-hand news.”
“Is that really the reason? Or are you just terrified that the hate you’ve been feeding on for six months is based on a lie? Are you afraid to find out you were wrong?”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a virgin or not! You still don’t get it!” He roared, the mask of indifference finally shattering. “At the end of the day, you chose him. You chose to protect his secret, to follow his lead, to push me away. I promised myself I would never be anyone’s second choice again. Not after my mother, not after my father. Never again.”
“I am not them! I am not the people who abandoned you!” She reached out, her hand trembling in the empty space between them. She stared at him, her heart pleading for him to close the gap, her mind racing for any other way to bridge the chasm. She was just about to give up when Reno lunged forward. He didn't just take her hand; he seized her, pulling her flush against the hard, unyielding lines of his body.
“You betrayed me!” he whispered harshly into her ear, his breath scorching her skin like a brand. “I saw you. I saw you in that bed with him. I saw the sheets, Lisette!”
“You were there! You were right there in that hotel and you left me!” she spat back, the ancient hurt surfacing with a vehemence that matched his own. “You left me in that room with that monster!”
Reno spun her around, his grip iron-tight, his eyes searching hers with a mocking, silent encouragement to keep going. Lisette felt herself retreating, physically and emotionally. The sheer, concentrated spite in his gaze was a wall she couldn't climb. How could the man who used to look at her like she was a miracle now regard her like a stain?
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her strength flagging. “I didn’t mean... I’m not blaming you for leaving. It’s not your fault I was stupid enough to walk into Michael’s trap. But please, Reno. Just once. Let me prove that I am untouched. Let me prove that you are the only man I have ever waited for. Let me show you I love you.”
For a moment, the air in the room seemed to vanish. Reno backed away, shaking his head in a frantic motion that could have been denial or a final refusal. Lisette didn't wait to find out. She saw the hate flicker and die in his eyes, replaced by that old, familiar weakness—the hunger for her that he couldn't kill.
She pounced. Before he could retreat further into his wall of ice, Lisette pulled her shirt over her head and launched herself at him with every ounce of the strength she had spent months rebuilding. The force of her momentum sent them both tumbling back onto the mattress. She didn't give him a chance to speak; she claimed his lips with a desperate, crushing kiss that tasted of salt, longing, and the absolute truth.
“I love you,” she murmured against his mouth, her heart finally meeting his. “And all I want—all I have ever wanted—is to finally belong to you.”