PAULINE
The silence was shattered the moment I spoke.
"Yes."
The word left my mouth before I could reconsider it, small and sharp, cutting through the thick air between us.
Marcus went completely still.
I watched something shift in his expression, something dark and terrible settling into the lines of his face. He had expected me to deny it. To twist and manipulate my way out of this, the way I always had.
But there was no way out.
Not this time.
"I was responsible for Athena disappearing," I continued, forcing the words past the tightness in my throat. "You know exactly why I did it."
His jaw clenched.
"Say it."
"She was going to take everything from me." My voice shook despite my efforts to steady it. "My position. My influence. Everything I had worked for. I could not allow that to happen."
"So you sold her."
The accusation hung between us, brutal and unforgiving.
