CHAPTER SIX: How long?

Ava:

I stood there for what felt like half an hour. My gaze drifted to the teacup she’d left behind. I was unsure where to keep my gaze and could only bite down on my lips as her words repeated themselves in my head.

Duty, not desire.

My mind flashed back to the wedding night. And I immediately thought of the way Dante had looked at me, like he wanted to devour me whole. I recalled the way his hands had shaken slightly when he'd touched my face. And surprisingly, I still remembered clearly every word he had whispered against my skin that had sounded an awful lot like desire.

Disregarding the way he had made me feel, I wrapped my arms around myself because at the moment, only his mother’s words sounded real and right, and it was slowly becoming clear that that night had been nothing but obligation wrapped in physical attraction.

The thought made my stomach turn.

I walked out of that house later, more lost in my thoughts than I had been when I just stepped inside earlier.

Somehow, I found my way out of the gates and into the streets before stopping a cab and giving the cab driver the address of the only other home I had.

My father’s house.

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The cab pulled up to the Pierce estate, and I paid the driver with money from my purse.

The house looked smaller than I remembered. Or maybe I’d just gotten used to the scale of Rossi wealth, where everything was bigger and more expensive. The Pierce estate was old money trying to look like older money, all Georgian-style architecture.

I tried to push back every single memory I had of this house, because every single one of them had Ivy in them. And the guilt that has been climbing my skin and crawling through my throat over the past weeks was becoming too much to bear.

My key was still in my purse. But making use of it felt somehow wrong, because frankly when my father had handed me to Dante a few weeks ago, the look he gave me was the kind that clearly meant he didn’t want to see me back home very soon.

So I knocked instead.

The door opened almost immediately. My mother stood in the doorway, and the sight of her hit me like a blow.

The moment our eyes met, she flinched. Actually flinched, like I’d raised a hand to hit her.

“You—Ava, it’s you.” Her voice was so timid. “I didn't—I didn’t know you were coming.”

I forced out a smile. “Hi, Mom.”

She didn’t step out to hug me, nor did she step away to welcome me inside, so I cleared my throat. “Can I come in?”

She looked at me carefully, and I saw the guilt written all over her face.

She slapped her forehead gently. “Pardon my manners. Come in,” she said, stepping aside. But she refused to meet my eyes.

Clutching my purse tighter, I walked into the house and spared a mere glance at the place before turning to meet her. “Is Dad home?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. His car had been in the driveway.

“He is. In his study.” Mom pressed her lips tightly, hesitating for a long minute before finally opening up. “Ava, I… I want you to know—”

“If it’s anything related to the wedding, then it's fine, Mom.” The tip of my lips pulled into a taut smile.

There was nothing she could do anymore, so it was best she kept her words to herself.

She shook her head. “Ava, it’s not.” Her eyes were red-rimmed. Had she been crying? “What he did to you, what I let him do… it was horrible, and I was helpless. I couldn’t say a word against him and could only watch.” She pressed her lips together. “You know how your father is sometimes…”

“Mom, please.” I couldn’t do this, and I wasn’t going to. “I just need to talk to Dad.”

Her eyes widened briefly, stunned. Because I had never spoken to her that way before. “I’ll make tea.”

The moment she turned her back to me, I realized how harsh my words were, and I wanted to take them back, but then I shook my head and turned away.

My legs walked down the hallway and straight to the study. I knocked once, and I heard my father's grunt of approval before pushing the door open.

He sat behind his desk, with reading glasses perched on his nose as he reviewed some documents. With the deep frown in his brows, I could tell it probably was another failed investment.

“Ava.” He didn’t seem surprised by my presence. He had been expecting me.

He placed the files aside. “I wasn’t expecting you. Why are you here? Don’t tell me you already messed things up with your husband in less than a month.”

Just straight to business. That was my father.

I shook my head and stepped further inside. “Dante hasn't been around since the wedding…” Father’s brows furrowed as I paused to take a deep breath. “Since the wedding night. I need to stay here till he comes back.” I said, the words tumbling out before I could second-guess them. Before I could think too hard about what I was asking. “Or just for a while. Until I figure out—”

“No.”

The single word hit me hard, and my brows deepened into a tight frown.

“What?”

“You can't stay here.” He closed every single document on his table, like even that simple action required his full attention. Then he removed his glasses and looked at me. “You're a married woman now, Ava. Your place is with your husband.”

“My husband left.” My voice was rising, and I couldn't stop it. “He’s been gone for three weeks. I don’t know where he is. I don’t have any way to contact him. He left me a note, just one that didn’t tell me when he was coming back or even how to reach him.”

“Then you wait.”

My shoulders sagged in disbelief. “For how long?”

“As long as it takes.” He stood up and moved to the window, like he couldn’t even bear to look at me while he said these things. “Did you think marriage was supposed to be easy? Comfortable? This is what you signed up for.”

“I didn’t sign up for anything!” The shout tore out of me. “You locked me in a hospital room! You forced me to—”

“I saved you.” He turned then, and his face was hard with no sympathy at all or even warmth to spare his daughter. “The Rossis wanted someone to blame for Ivy’s death. And the only person that would have taken the fall would have been you, because you caused it. Dante was in love with your sister, and you caused that damned accident that took her life. Do you understand that? They could have destroyed you and ruined your entire life. I gave you a way out.”

“By forcing me to marry a man who hates me?!”

“By giving you a future.” He took a step closer, looming over me in the same way he used to when I was a child and I’d done something wrong. “You think you had better options? Do you think anyone else would have touched you after what happened? You killed your own sister, Ava.”

The words were a knife between my ribs. I didn’t need the reminder. I didn’t need to be reminded that I still couldn’t recall any incident from that night.

“It was an accident,” I whispered. “You know it was an accident.”

“Does it matter?” His voice was lackluster and cruel. “She’s still dead. And you’re still alive. You made your choice the moment you got behind that wheel. And you better be prepared to live with the consequences that follow your actions.”

I felt his words bruising something deep inside me.

“I just need help,” I said, and I hated how small my voice sounded. “I just need somewhere to stay until—”

“Until what? Until your husband decides to come back? Until you figure out how to be a proper wife?” He shook his head. “You need to go back to that penthouse and wait for Dante like you’re supposed to. Be grateful he married you at all after what you did.”

“But I didn’t do anything!”

“You survived.” Father said harshly. “That’s what you did. You survived, and Ivy didn’t. Now you get to live with that choice every single day for the rest of your life.”