“Hmm, maybe I am.” He pulled my hand upward and pressed a kiss to my ring finger. At some point during the night, a huge ruby surrounded by diamonds had appeared on it. My hand felt heavier thanks to its opulence.
I stared at the jewel twinkling in the light.
“Why did you give this to me?” I wondered. It wasn’t a small ring. It was a statement. I just didn’t know what it was a statement of.
“Why? You don’t like it?”
“It looks like an engagement ring,” I mused.
He nodded. “Shall we just make it official then?”
“Make what official?”
“Getting married.”
I stared at him for a second and then laughed. “Very funny. I’m not adding another responsibility to the load I’ve laid on your shoulders. You’ve already had to do a hell of a lot of crap for me. I’m not adding marriage to the list.”
He was quiet for a long while, but it wasn’t a peaceful silence. Finally, he took my hand and rubbed his fingers over the ring he’d put on it.
“It belonged to a noblewoman of the Savoy family. She used to live right here, in this very house,” Massimo told me. “Paolo swears her ghost haunts these halls.”
“Did she have a happy life?” I asked.
“She killed off four husbands who failed to please her and died with her children all around her, pampered, spoiled, and powerful, so, I think so.”
“Powerful,” I muttered, turning the ring this way and that. “I wonder what that feels like.”
Massimo watched me. “You already know more than you think. Locked up in Hallow Hall with your mind intact, your wit razor-sharp, and your goodness unspoiled? That’s power, whether you realize it or not.”
I shook my head, sure that I wasn’t worthy of that kind of praise. I’d only just survived in that place. That was hardly powerful.
“They didn’t break you,” he urged. “Don’t you see how strong you are?”
I shook my head. “I don’t feel strong.”
He just shrugged. “Yet, that doesn’t mean you aren’t. How are you feeling?”
Now it was my turn to shrug. “Okay, I guess, though I kind of miss not having any memories. The last three years aren’t something I’m eager to think about.”
“And you don’t have to. You have me now. I’ll think about it, keep your tally and settle your scores.”
“And Mira? I want to know what happened to her child. I want to make sure it never happens to someone else at Hallow Hall.”
“That shithole is no longer. It wasn’t a small fire. It’s gone. They won’t be rebuilding. I don’t want to upset you, angel, but I found out some information from my doctor friend about the medications you’ve been on.”
“What is it?” I felt worried for a second that he was going to sugarcoat it, conceal things to protect me, when all I wanted wasthe truth. It was my truth. It was my right to know it. Luckily, he didn’t even try. By the time he finished telling me everything, I was shocked and furious. The rage threatened to blacken my vision.
“So, you’re telling me that Ivan was giving me these drugs from our very first date?”
Massimo nodded. This was news indeed. I didn’t know what to make of it. It meant that I’d been Ivan’s target from the very first second we met.
“He was slipping you something that could cause side effects like voices... which you developed. You then went to your doctor about it, and that gave them a reasonable excuse to put you in Hallow Hall.”
“I still don’t understand why they wanted me there to begin with.” I had so many unanswered questions, and it was driving me crazy. Maybe my mom could shed some light on it, though I already knew she had really believed that Hallow Hall would be good for my soul.
Massimo sighed. “I know. We’ll find out together, and now that the drugs have stopped... you shouldn’t hear the voices as much, if at all.”
I took in that information. It had never been anything other than a side effect of a medication I should never have been taking. It was hard to get my head around.