Page 80 of Ruthless Edge

"What gala?"

I look at him. Something about the way he said it stops me. Not defensive. Not careful. Just genuinely lost.

It’s hard to imagine how little that night meant to him. It destroyed me, but he hasn’t even given it a second thought. That’s how little I matter.

"You didn't come." The words come out jagged. "You left me sitting there the whole night, then Laura came and she told me you didn't want to be seen with the fat girl, and you couldn't even tell me yourself⁠—"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Knox says it fast and low, his hand still on my face, and he seems completely confused.

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“I really don’t have a⁠—”

"Emma."

Laura's voice.

I turn.

She's come through the side exit behind us, and she's still holding her clutch, and she's looking at Knox with something that is trying to be composed and isn't quite making it. "Why didn't you bid on me tonight? I thought⁠—"

"What message did you give Emma?" Knox says, turning toward her. He's still holding my arm with one hand and his voice is controlled. Almost calm. "About the gala. Freshman year. What did you tell her?"

Laura stops. "Message?"

"What message did you give Emma from me, freshman year, at the gala?" he says again. Exactly the same. Like he has all the time in the world.

I'm watching Laura's face. I'm watching Knox's hand on my arm. I'm running back through every version of that night I've carried, the empty table, the untouched water glasses, Laura's soft expression. I thought I knew what happened. I thought I'd understood for three years.

Is it possible I didn’t?

Or is all of this some kind of game to Knox? A way to pass the blame.

Something shifts in Laura's face. She looks at me, and I see her doing what she always does, reading the room, calculating the cost of each available path. I try to pull my arm back from Knox because I need to leave, I need to not be standing here with both of them looking at me, and Knox won't let me go.

"I'm done," I say. "Let me go."

"Not yet." Knox's eyes are still on Laura.

"You can't keep me here⁠—"

He glances back at me. “We’re getting this sorted, once and for all, because I have a picture of the future for the two of us, and it can never get there if the past is still hanging over us.”

"If you couldn't bother to show up when I won you at the auction," I say, and my voice breaks slightly and I don't stop, "I sure as hell not standing here while you try to shift the blame."

Knox goes still.

He looks at me. Then slowly turns to look at Laura. And I see it in his face. Something that’d be hard to fake. It’s like something has finally clicked into place for him.

"Emma won the bid," he says slowly. "The bid on me."

"Knox, don’t—" I begin.

"She won. Freshman year. Emma won the bid on me."

Laura says nothing.

"You told me nobody bid," Knox says. "That I didn't have to go to the gala."