forward, lifting my chin so I would meet his eyes. “You have nothing to fear from me.”
“But you tricked me. You brought me here after telling me I would be free. Except, I feel more like a prisoner than ever
before. And now I feel you are trying to turn me against my own family, because of the hurt yours has gone through.”
Tears threatened my eyes, and he brushed them away with his thumb as they fell. I wanted to scream and cry, demand more
answers, see my father, and ask him everything.
“I don’t understand any of this.”
I didn’t mean to say my thoughts out loud, but even if I didn’t, he would possibly hear them too. I didn’t feel safe and I
didn’t believe I could trust him. It didn't matter how many times he told me I could. He was two different people. And this
person was not the person I met in the woods. The one who filled me with excitement and glee.
“You need to leave,” I whispered.
“Ornella, I don’t ever want you to feel pain or hurt.”
“Please, Nic, I have to think about this. I don’t know what I’m meant to believe. If what you say is true, then my entire life
has been a lie. My parents murdered yours? Is that why my mother ran to me when she saw you? She knew who you were?”
He lowered his eyes and let go of my face, turning away from me. I watched as his shoulders sank and his body language
changed. He knew more, he wasn’t telling me everything. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know anything else, at least not right now.
I had been told so much already, I needed time to process and think.
“I’m sure she recognised me—or at least had an idea of who I was. That’s how she knew to send your two servants here,
likely with the hopes they’d come back with information.”
My heart thundered in my chest and the ringing in my ears began once again. I couldn’t wrap my mind around his words.
Tiredness clouded my mind, and I could feel myself sway a little.
The more secrets he reveals, the more it becomes clear that he’d planned everything. From befriending me in the woods,
pretending to be Lord Cole, hurting my brother, and then promising to heal him if I agreed to go back with him. He planned it
all.
Was he going to kill me? Payment for his aunt dying?
“No. I will never harm you.”
Turning back to me, he rushed back to my side. He knelt down and placed his hands gently on my knees. His face looked
soft—broken as if I just betrayed him.
“Ornella, I tricked you as I didn’t think you would willingly leave with me. Not when I’d become a stranger to you. But,
you have to trust me. I would never hurt you,” he pleaded with me.
“I can’t trust you. You told me you met me when I was a child, but I don’t remember that. What else are you hiding from