Chapter 4 4

I awoke to the antiseptic smell of a hospital and the low, pained voice of my brother. Ethan sat by my bed, his eyes red-rimmed and shadowed with exhaustion.

"I'm so sorry, Clara," he whispered. "I should have been there. I should have protected you."

I managed a weak shake of my head. "It's not your fault. It happened too fast."

"I was too far away," he said, his voice thick with self-loathing. "But Liam... Liam was right beside you. And he chose her. He left you there."

A strange, weary peace settled over me. "He loves her, Ethan. In a moment like that, you save the person you love most. It's instinct. There's nothing to forgive. The fantasy is over. I see things clearly now."

Later, when Ethan had gone home to rest, I took out my phone. The screen's glow was harsh in the dim room. I confirmed my flight.

"Yes, that's right," I whispered into the phone, not noticing the figure that had appeared in my doorway. "The earliest flight to London on the nineteenth. First class."

"First class to where?"

I flinched, snapping my phone shut. Liam stood there, his arms crossed, his expression a mixture of suspicion and annoyance.

"It's nothing," I said automatically.

"Is this some new kind of tantrum?" he asked, his voice laced with the condescending authority he so often used with me. "Are you sulking because you got a little scare at the party?"

I met his gaze, my own voice surprisingly steady. "You're about to get married, Liam. Where I go, and what I do, is no longer any of your concern."

My defiance seemed to confirm his suspicions. This was just another play for attention. "You're right," he said, his face smoothing into a mask of indifference. "It has nothing to do with me. Sienna was worried, so she asked me to check on you."

"I'm fine. You can leave."

My coldness seemed to finally register. He was about to say something more when a nurse bustled in for my follow-up exam.

My leg was a mess of bandages. As I struggled to get into the wheelchair, I nearly fell. Liam caught me out of sheer reflex, a spark of his old protective instinct. I thanked him stiffly and tried to wheel myself out.

He let out an exasperated sigh and took the handles. "I'll take you."

As we exited the elevator on the ground floor, we nearly collided with Sienna.

The change in him was instantaneous. He dropped the wheelchair handles as if they were hot coals and rushed to her side, his face alight with concern.

The wheelchair, on a slight incline and suddenly untended, shot forward.

A cry escaped my lips as it careened towards a large, marble planter. I threw my weight to the side, tumbling out onto the cold, polished floor. The impact sent a fresh wave of agony through my body. My hands and knees were raw, bleeding again.

Sienna rushed to my side, her face a mask of theatrical horror. "Liam, she's hurt! The chair is broken! You should carry her to the exam room."

Liam looked from me, crumpled on the floor, to Sienna's pleading face. His jaw tightened.

"I can't," he said, his voice flat and resolute. "I'm getting married. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to carry another woman."

The words struck me with the force of a physical blow. He wouldn't carry me, but he would find me a new wheelchair.

As he walked away, Sienna knelt beside me, dabbing at my scrapes with a silk handkerchief. "That's just Liam," she said softly. "He's fiercely loyal. I feel terrible about all this. It was an accident, of course, but..."

I pushed myself up, ignoring the pain. "Sienna, the act is over. I don't love him anymore. I don't care what you do."

I started to limp away, but she followed, her voice a low hiss. "So you knew? You knew it was all a game to get closer to me..."

Her words were cut off by a sudden splash. I turned to see Sienna flailing in the shallow decorative pond next to the walkway. For a split second, I hesitated, then I reached out a hand to help.

At that exact moment, Liam returned. He took in the scene with one furious glance. He sprinted past me, leaped into the water, and swept Sienna into his arms.

He laid her gently on a bench, then turned to me, his eyes blazing with a righteous fury. "I'm gone for five minutes, and you push her into the water?"

Before I could form a denial, he shoved me. Hard.

I stumbled backward, my balance gone, and fell into the icy water.

"I have tolerated your obsession for years out of respect for your father," he snarled, standing over me, a terrifying silhouette against the hospital lights. "But Sienna is where I draw the line. Since he's not here to do it, I'll teach you a lesson on his behalf!"

His voice, the cold water, and the sudden, sharp scent of my own blood clouding the pond all hit me at once. I thrashed, my waterlogged clothes pulling me down into the suffocating darkness.