Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Emily halted and turned toward him, her face unreadable. “What is it, Mr. Bennett?”
Her icy tone struck Lucas like a physical blow. “How dare you play dumb with me? I know exactly what game you’re playing.”
Emily stared up at him, genuine confusion in her eyes. She had deliberately avoided the Bennetts for weeks, and couldn’t fathom what scheme he imagined she had.
Lucas’s eyes hardened with cold conviction, the look of someone who’d pieced together every thread of her supposed deception.
“You cut us off and blocked my number just to force me to chase after you. Only someone as manipulative as you would
try something so pathetic,” he snapped.
Emily neither understood his accusations nor cared to debate them. “Believe what you will, Mr. Bennett. If we’re finished here, I’m going to my room.”
“Not yet.” Lucas seized her arm with enough force to nearly knock her off balance.
Weariness and frustration finally broke Emily’s restraint. “If you have something to say, spit it out. Or are you waiting for my blood to stain the floor again?” she demanded, furrowing her brow.
The scars on Emily’s palms had faded to thin white lines after more than two weeks. She could manage daily tasks now, but the marks would likely never disappear completely.
Lucas’s gaze dropped to her hands before he could stop himself, and suddenly he was back in that moment-the blood, the shattered glass, and her pale face.
“Are we really doing this again?” he snapped, irritation rising. “I never meant to hurt you. But none of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t been tormenting Lydia in the first place. Must you always make such a fuss over every little thing?”
What he brushed off as a little thing had left her hands useless for days-unable to grip a fork, barely able to dress herself. A stranger might’ve apologized. But Lucas, someone she’d lived with for eighteen years, couldn’t even muster that.
Even after all this time, the Bennett family’s casual cruelty still surprised her. Emily met his gaze steadily. “Tell me, Mr. Bennett, what exactly did I do to piss you off this time?”
She was willing to correct whatever he pointed out, if only he’d leave her alone afterward.
“Don’t play dumb,” Lucas fired back. “You blocked my number to force me to come to you. This is just petty revenge because I blocked yours first, isn’t it?”
Emily barked a humorless laugh. “Did you forget, Mr. Bennett? When you sent me to St. Gabriel’s, they took everything down to my last hair tie. How exactly was I supposed to keep a phone? That number was purged after two years of inactivity.”
Lucas hesitated, the realization dawning. His tone lost its edge. “You’ve been back months. Why didn’t you give me your new number?”
“I don’t have a phone, nor a new number. I didn’t mean to force you to come to me,” Emily said coldly. “Are we done here?”
Lucas straightened, the confrontation fading from his voice yet yielding no apology. “Enough of this. There’s an event at the Hiltin Hotel at noon two days from now. You’ll be there.” The words fell like a judge’s verdict, brooking no appeal.
Emily remembered when these invitations used to thrill her-when she’d been the Bennetts’ golden girl trailing a flock of so-called friends.
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Chapter 31
Then Lydia appeared, and overnight, all those who had sworn eternal friendship to Emily flocked to the new favorite. They mocked her as “a scavenger squatting in a swan’s palace” and “a barn hen dressed as a peacock.”
After that, Emily lost all interest in parties, including those hosted by the Bennetts.