Forbidden Fate (Crowne Point 3)

“Do you know how useless power is when you actually have something to lose?” I asked. “That’s why my grandfather is so powerful. He couldn’t give a shit about any of us, even his own son. My dad died in a car accident on a perfectly sunny December day without any other cars around. Maybe someone was trying to get to Grandpa. Maybe my grandpa killed his own son because he wouldn’t listen. Maybe it really was an accident. Who the fuck knows?”

She stopped pushing, hands curling in the fabric of my shirt. She stared at my chest, biting her plump bottom lip.

After a moment, her stony eyes flashed to mine.

“You chose for us,” she said. “You didn’t give me the option. We could have chosen together, we could have chosen each other.”

“What would you have chosen, Story?” I backed her into the room. “Jail? Death?”

Her face went blank, eyes flickering. “I…You didn’t give me the option!”

I gripped her face, forcing her stare. “I would do it again. Every single fucking time I would take that option away from you.”

“Even now? Even after everything?”

“If it means keeping you alive. Keeping you safe. I will always fucking choose that. No matter the consequence.”

“So you get to play the martyr. You get to be Atlas.”

She pushed at me again, but I grabbed her, pulling her close. I hugged her so tight she couldn’t shove me, hugged her until maybe she could feel the truth in my heartbeat.

“I hate you, Grayson Crowne,” she mumbled against my chest. “I hate you. You broke us. You did this to us.”

I stroked her hair, hoping she could feel the apology in my touch.

For a few minutes it was perfect. Then she spoke again.

“Why is now different?”

She slowly pulled away from me, eyes watery and accusatory.

Why is now different? I’ve been fighting this thing since the day she kissed me in that fucking room, but it’s impossible. We’re woven together with the red thread of fate.

I took too long to answer, and she broke apart, taking a few steps back, until the back of her knees hit the hospital bed.

Her hand glanced her stomach. “I wasn’t enough to fight for…but my baby is.”

“No—fuck. Fuck no, Snitch.”

Everything I say is wrong. It’s going all wrong.

“What is the plan now, Grayson? Has your grandfather suddenly approved of me? Do we walk out of here arm in arm?”

I dragged my hands through my hair.

I don’t fucking know.

I don’t have these answers.

For her sake, I hope you wore protection.

If we walk out of here, and they find out she’s pregnant, she’s in even more danger. But I can’t let her disappear. I fucking can’t.

“I need to keep you safe,” was all I managed.

“What about what I want?” she demanded. “You want to lock me away in a tower.”

“No—”