Page 128 of Poison Aches

I’ve always known that Angel is not who she appears to be.

I know she hides a lot of herself from everyone, but never did I think she’d do that to me.

“Emmett, you have to understand,” she starts, her voice now hoarse with unshed tears. “I never meant to hurt you…”

“Don’t get it twisted, you didn’t hurt me,” I state. “But I am curious why you never told me.”

“I wanted to tell you so many times, I really did, it’s just…”

She trails into silence, her chest heaving up and down with effort.

“If you’re thinking of a lie right now, don’t bother.”

“The truth is, I was too young back then. I didn’t know the depths of everything then, but now I can help you! I can tell your father what I saw!”

At this, I can’t help but smirk. “Is that your way of trying to get out of the vow?” I gesture toward the contract I’ve had prepared for years. It had been collecting dust and I even believed I’ll never have any use for it, but now the game is different.

“No, I…”

“When I needed you the most, you forgot,” I say, cutting her off. “But now that you’re old enough and you remember everything, I’m pretty sure you remember what I told you I’d do.”

A powerful shudder goes through Angel’s body, so much so that I feel it too.

“What did I promise you?”

“Emmett…”

“What did I promise you, Angel?”

“That…” she stutters. “That one day you’d make me pay.”

“Exactly! But I never did,” I remind her. “In fact, I let you go free all this time, thinking it’s the least I could do. But is that fair? Especially when I’ve practically made sure no one touches you in the past three years?”

I hold her teary gaze silently as the gears shift in her head.

I know her well enough to know that she’s currently calculating, trying to weigh her pros and cons.

But against me, she’ll lose.

“And what will I have to do?” she asks slowly. She already knows the only reason her world hasn’t crumbled and she hasn’t ended up in a filthy prison cell is because of me.

“Nothing,” I shrug, studying her.

“Nothing?” She narrows her eyes at me. “This contract literally has no specific terms!”

“Did we ever specify the terms back then?”

“Well…”

“All you just have to do is just be you.”

Because you are the secret weapon, the ace up my sleeve. An entire kingdom will collapse just because of you, but you don’t know it yet.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” she demands, obviously not happy with me.

“Making you feel better is not my goal,” I tell her honestly. “Making you honor the vow is.”

“Yes, we had three terms,” she starts. “The vow would be exclusive?—”

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