"If you're so clean, explain how you spent six or seven hours locked in a warehouse with over a dozen men. Who knows whether you lost that baby from a beating or from something else entirely? What right do you have to call me filthy?"
I stared at him, frozen. It wasn't his unhinged fury that terrified me. It was the fact that those words had come from his mouth at all.
So when he'd gone to find those kidnappers, he'd already known what they might do to me. He'd left me with them anyway. He'd convicted me before he ever came to get me.
After venting the rage inside him, Bertram noticed my trembling body and softened slightly.
"Fine. I'll admit Alexis went a little too far about some things. I'll let that slap go. Now come back, put on the mascot costume, and help celebrate her birthday. She said she wants both of us there to wish her well."
Alexis again. I opened my mouth to refuse, but he cut me off.
"The hospital just called. Your father is still in the ICU. If nothing goes wrong, he should wake up in the next day or two."
I stared into those deep, unreadable eyes. My voice came out raw. "Are you threatening me?"
"That depends on what you decide."
He dropped the words like stones and walked away.
Watching his retreating figure, I felt something sharp lodge behind my eyes.
Ten years. I hated that I could decode every unspoken meaning in his words. I hated even more that he'd always known exactly which strings to pull.
By the time I appeared in the lobby wearing the mascot costume, the birthday party was in full swing.
Everything that had just happened might as well have been a minor interruption. No one cared.
Alexis had her hand on Bertram's shoulder, rising on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek.
The pain of watching it ground my bones to dust like a millstone. All I could do was gulp down the thin air inside the costume, fighting to stay calm.
Every breath felt like swallowing a thousand razor blades.
They weren't even pretending anymore.
"Hey, what are you standing there for? Go deliver the rings!" Someone beside me jabbed their elbow into my side.
Rings?
Instinctively, my hand went to the pocket on the costume's belly, because ten years ago, when Bertram had confessed his feelings, he'd hidden his gift in that exact spot.
Through the tiny mesh eyeholes, I saw an elegant red velvet box.