He Demanded I Deny His Daughter, So I Walked Away novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Not Tonight

Rochelle's POV

I came down the stairs one step at a time and stopped on the last one.

Silvan stood by the bench with a thick sealed envelope in his hand.

He held it out to me, and then he didn't.

"Is that it?" I asked.

"Yes."

"What's inside?"

"Something my sister wrote. I haven't read it." He swallowed. "I think it will change things for you, and I don't know if you'll want it to."

"Is it bad?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know what it says?"

"Some of it."

I looked at it for a long time.

I thought of the silver pen, and a hundred and forty faces.

I thought of every paper that had been put in front of me that month.

"Not tonight," I said.

He looked up.

"I've had a week of everyone's papers. I can't open one more." I took the envelope gently out of his hand and set it on the bench, face down. "Tomorrow. I'll read it tomorrow."

"All right."

"Is that all right?"

"It's yours. It's always been yours." His voice was low and rough. "Rochelle, I owe you an apology, and I don't think I can make it in words."

"Then don't use words."

I hadn't known I was going to say it.

I saw him hear it.

I crossed the floor in my bare feet and stopped in front of him, close enough to feel the heat of his chest through his shirt.

"Your week was up this afternoon," I said. "You never mentioned it."

"No."

"You were going to let me stay."

"I was going to lose that argument with myself," Silvan said, "every day until you left."

"I thought you hated me."

"I thought I did."

"For four years."

"I was a fool for four years."

I put my palm flat on his chest, on the bare skin at his open collar, and I felt his heart hammering against it.

"Don't thank me yet," I said softly.

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