Chapter Six

"What exactly am I looking at," Nathaniel said again, like the silence hadn't answered him the first time.

"Nathaniel, he was in an accident,I came because he almost died tonight." I stood up straighter, forcing my voice level even though my hands weren't listening. "That's all this is."

"That's all this is." He repeated it slowly, tasting it. "You didn't call me,you didn't tell me where you were going,I had to find out from someone else that my own wife was sitting in a hospital room at midnight holding another man's hand."

"He's my friend, Nathaniel and my attorney,the only person in this whole ordeal who has ever actually been on my side."

"Right, your friend." He looked at Marcus now, and whatever polite distance he usually kept around him was gone completely. "Funny how fast you got here for a friend,faster than you've moved for me in two years."

"That's not fair," Marcus said, shifting against the pillows, wincing at the movement. "She got a call that I'd been run off the road,anyone would have come."

"Would they." Nathaniel's eyes hadn't left me. "Or is it just you."

Before I could answer, a voice came from the hallway, light and careless in a way that made my stomach turn before she even stepped into view.

"Nathaniel? Are you still in here?"

Elora appeared in the doorway a second later, wrapped in a coat too put-together for someone who supposedly hadn't known where her brother-in-law's husband had gone in the middle of the night,her eyes swept the room once….me, Marcus, the space between us and something flickered across her face that wasn't surprise at all.

"Oh," she said softly. "I didn't realize we'd be interrupting something."

"You're not interrupting anything," I said. "Marcus was in an accident so I came to see if he was alright."

"Of course you did." Her voice stayed gentle, sympathetic even, which somehow made it worse than if she'd just been cruel outright.

She turned to Nathaniel, resting a hand lightly on his arm. "I told you not to worry so much on the drive over,I'm sure it's all completely innocent."

"I never said it wasn't," Nathaniel said, but slower this time, like her words had planted something he hadn't quite thought of on his own.

"It is innocent," I said. "Because there's nothing here to be innocent about."

Elora tilted her head, that same small, sweet smile she'd worn standing on my doorstep the day she came home. "Big sister, no one's accusing you of anything, I just find it interesting, how fast you got here tonight,how you didn't think to call your own husband first."

"I didn't call him because he's spent the last few days making it very clear he doesn't believe a single word out of my mouth."

"Maybe you should ask yourself why that is," Elora said, still gentle, still smiling, and I felt my hands curl into fists at my sides.

"Don't," I said. "Don't stand there acting concerned when you know exactly what you're doing right now."

"I'm not doing anything, Elena. I only came because Nathaniel was worried sick, and I didn't want him driving over here alone in that state." She looked genuinely wounded by the accusation, and that was the worst part….how easy it was for her, how practiced.

"How thoughtful of you."

"I try to be."

"Enough," Nathaniel said, and the room went quiet,he hadn't raised his voice, but something in it cut through both of us anyway.

He looked at Marcus first, then at me, and when he spoke again it was slower, like he was choosing every word on purpose. "I want to ask you something, and I want a real answer."

Marcus went still in the bed.

"Do you have feelings for him," Nathaniel said. "Marcus. Do you love him."

The question landed in the middle of the room and just sat there.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, a fast easy no that would end this before it could go any furthe but I looked at Marcus first, just for a second, and in that half second I saw something in his face he wasn't quick enough to hide…something careful and quiet and much too old to be new.

And I hesitated.

"That's not…" I started. "It's not that simple."

"It's a yes or no question, Elena."

"Nathaniel, please, don't do this here, not with him lying in a hospital bed…"

"You're still not answering me."

Elora didn't say a word,she didn't have to. I could feel her watching the two of us like she was waiting for a verdict, patient in the way only someone who already knows the outcome can afford to be.

"I need you to just say it isn't true," Nathaniel said, and for one strange second his voice wasn't angry at all,It was almost pleading. "Tell me I'm wrong,tell me it's nothing."

I looked at him then at Marcus,I thought about two years of silence, of turned backs, of a house that never once felt like mine, and then I thought about a man who showed up at midnight without being asked twice.

The words wouldn't come.

Not because they weren't there,because for the first time in years, I didn't know which ones were true anymore, and I refused to hand him a lie just to make the moment easier.

"Elena." Nathaniel's voice had gone flat now, all the pleading gone out of it. "That's your answer."

"That's not what I said."

"You didn't have to say it." He stepped back from the bed, from both of us, his jaw tight, his eyes suddenly very tired in a way I'd never seen on him before. "You just showed me."

"Nathaniel, wait…"

"I've spent two years wondering why you always carried everything concerning Marcus on your head," he said quietly. "I think I finally understand why."

He turned and walked out without another word,Elora lingered just long enough to give me one last look….soft, sympathetic, and utterly satisfied before she followed him into the hallway.

The door swung shut behind them, and the room went silent except for the machine beside Marcus's bed, beeping on, steady and indifferent, like it hadn't just watched everything come apart in under two minutes.

"Elena." Marcus's voice was careful. "Say something."

I couldn't,l I just stood there staring at the closed door, my own silence still ringing in my ears louder than anything Nathaniel had said.

Because he was right about one thing.

I hadn't answered him.

And some part of me, the part I hadn't let myself listen to in two years, already knew exactly why.