°•♡Chapter 79~ This isn't Trust

Dinner was warm and quiet. The kind of quiet that isn’t peaceful. Just... stretched thin.

The long dinner table we sat around could’ve easily seated twenty people, but it was just the six of us. And the subtle but very heavy tension.

The twins sat on either side of Lucien, gleaming. Talia wouldn’t stop asking questions.

“What was your house like growing up?”

“Do you remember the names of your horses?” “Did you ever break a bone?”

And he answered every single one. Patient. Smiling. Like he belonged here. Like he was really their father.

I kept watching.

Ronan did too. But he was better at pretending not to. I saw the way his eyes flicked toward me every time I froze with my fork halfway to my mouth. Every time my knuckles went white from holding back a dozen different words.

He couldn't just waltz into their lives like that, acting like the father he never was. Bonding. It made me sick.

Then I said one of the many words.

“When will you be leaving?”

It slipped out sharper than I meant.