You Are Not Rejecting Me novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Half the Truth

Nia's POV

Seren came to the carriage barn at dusk, alone, in the old gray sweatshirt we had shared in college.

I was sanding a chair leg, and I did not stop.

"You can leave," I said.

"I will. Let me say one thing."

She stood just inside the door with her hands out of her pockets, so I could see them.

Her eyes were red.

I had not seen her cry for real in fifteen years, and I hated that it still reached me.

"I'm scared, Nia," she said.

"Of what?"

"Of him."

"Of Owain?"

She nodded, and a tear ran down her face.

"He's not what I thought. He talks about the challenge at the moon like it's a hunt."

She wiped her cheek with her wrist.

"He means to kill Cadell. Not beat him. Kill him."

I put the sandpaper down.

"You helped him get to this."

"I know. I know I did." She came two steps closer. "I thought he'd take the seat and Cadell would walk away. That's what he told me."

"And now?"

"Now I think he lied to me, too."

She sounded small.

For a moment she was the girl who had held my hand on the first day of kindergarten, and I wanted to put my arms around her.

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