第2章

The school didn't provide housing, so the three of us rented a place nearby together.

It wasn't until I got back to the apartment, hollowed-out, that I remembered I didn't have a key.

A month earlier, Elias and I had picked the place together.

The agent gave us two keys, and Elias took both.

He said Giulietta would feel unsafe without a key, so she should have one.

He also said I was always losing things, so he would keep the other one, and since he would always be with me, I had nothing to worry about.

But he broke that promise. I was locked out with nowhere to go.

I called Elias ten times. He rejected every call.

In the end he blocked me outright.

I crouched by the door and watched the sky darken outside.

They didn't come back, laughing and talking, until half past eight.

Giulietta had her arm through Elias's. His hands were empty. There was no strawberry cake.

The gentle smile on his face froze the instant he saw me.

"Liliana, what are you doing here?"

The question sent a sharp pain through my chest.

I did not know how to answer the werewolf who was supposed to become my fated mate.

Why was I standing outside the apartment we had rented together?

I stood up and spoke quietly.

"You didn't give me a key, and you wouldn't take my calls.

"I had nowhere else to go."

Elias seemed to realize how wrong his question was. Guilt flickered in his eyes, and he hurried over to put his arms around me.

"That's not what I meant, Liliana.

"Come inside. You're freezing."

Once I was through the door, I noticed a cot in the living room.

When we rented the place, the agreement had been that Elias and I would take the master bedroom and Giulietta would have the second bedroom to herself.

That cot shouldn't have existed.

Holding the hot water Elias had poured for me, I looked up at him.

"What is that bed for?"

He looked away, unable to meet my eyes.

"Giulietta doesn't want us sleeping together. She says if we're too close, she'll feel lonely on her own."

"Since I'm a man, it'd be awkward for Giulietta if I slept in the living room. I'm afraid you'll have to make do."

So that was it.

Whenever Giulietta had a whim, my parents would leave me out when they bought clothes, fill the table with food I disliked, or suddenly decide to travel without me.

Now Elias was the same as them.

Because Giulietta didn't want something, he could make me suffer for it as though it were only natural.

My feelings and my life had stopped mattering next to Giulietta a long time ago.

"I'm not sleeping on a cot. We agreed we would share the master bedroom. If you want to sleep out here, you can."

Giulietta's eyes went red.

"Are you angry with me, Liliana?

"But I really do feel lonely. The two of you are going to be mates, and I'm all by myself.

"If neither of you wants me, how am I supposed to get through school alone?

"Please, Liliana. Take pity on me."

She looked fragile and innocent as she cried, and the hesitation on Elias's face hardened into certainty.

"She's only afraid of being alone, Liliana. You're her older sister. Can't you be reasonable and let her have this?

"You're a werewolf. You can't handle something as small as sleeping in the living room?

"If you won't agree, then move out yourself!"

I stared at him in disbelief. The heart I had thought was numb twisted so painfully that I could not breathe.

From the very beginning, the one who was alone had been me.

Elias and I had agreed to apply to a different university for grad school together.

But as the deadline approached, he suddenly changed his mind.

I only found out later that he had planned all along to apply here with Giulietta and simply hadn't told me.

I was so in love with him then that I switched schools without hesitation, just to be with him.

None of it meant anything.

Because from the start, they had intended to leave me behind.

I was only too foolish and too stubborn, chasing after two people who had deliberately walked away.

My love went cold along with my heart, until I didn't even have the energy to raise my voice.

"Elias, let's break up."

He only frowned at my words.

"I know you're upset, Liliana, but I don't want to hear that a second time.

"Sleep on the cot for now. I'll buy you a new bed later. Stop making a scene."

In his eyes, all my hurt and humiliation amounted to nothing more than a tantrum he could dismiss.

I drew a deep breath and spoke softly.

"Fine. I won't make a fuss anymore."