“Athol. It looks like he’s had a heart attack.”
I’m standing in the hospital corridor, waiting.
We’ve just learned that what Athol had wasn’t a heart attack but a bout of indigestion that caused severe pain. Even so, the doctors admitted him as a precaution, given his advanced age.
He’s awake now, and Rodrick went in to speak with him.
I’ve barely had time to process everything that happened to us today.
Our fight. My confession that I love him.
Sex as an attempt to reach each other.
The pain he finally allowed to surface, and then the possibility of losing the man who has been his anchor.
I’m confused and frightened. I don’t believe what he told me about being responsible for his father’s death, but I know that he believes it.
What could have happened for the former duke to go to such an extreme?
I hear footsteps on the cold floor, and when I lift my head, I see the last person who—if it were up to Rodrick—should be here: Gilroy.
As if he can read my thoughts, he raises both hands before he even reaches me. Maybe because Lamar has moved closer.
“I didn’t come to fight,” he says. “I just want to know about Athol.”
“Why?”
“For a time, he was the only one who cared about my survival.”
I remember what my husband’s former guardian said—that Rodrick expelled his stepmother’s son from his lands.
My heart hardens, because my loyalty lies with the man I married.
“I don’t feel sorry for you,” I say. “I don’t know you, but I know my Rodrick. He’s good. He would never hate you for no reason.”
“Your Grace,” Lamar calls to me. “You shouldn’t even be speaking to him.”
“I’m not in any danger, so please give us a moment.”
I’m tired of respecting my husband’s boundaries. Maybe it’s time to look for answers.
“Why do you hate each other?”
“It’s always been that way. I hate him for so many reasons that sometimes I can’t even remember them all, but the main one is that he caused my mother to be killed.”
“How is that possible? He was a child!”
His face hardens into a mask of hatred. “No. He was her lover.”
I had stood up because I don’t like talking to that man from a position of disadvantage, but the shock makes me sit back down.
The corridor spins and my stomach churns.
“He couldn’t have been his stepmother’s lover. When his father died, he was barely twelve years old. He was a child. If she became involved with her stepson in any way, it was sexual abuse.”
The moment I say that, Rodrick comes out of Athol’s room, and I think he hears the end of our argument. I feel his fury rolling off him in waves.
Then he lunges at Gilroy.