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He doesn’t.
When he stands again, his hands shake. The royal blue washcloth in his fist peeks out.
“What is it?”
“You know about the note from the bouquet, but what you don’t know…” He swallows, almost like he might vomit again, but he holds it back. “What you don’t know is that there was a used condom in the bouquet, too.”
The earth tilts, and if Oliver wasn’t grounding me, I’d probably be on the floor. He grips me tighter, holding me there like a tether in a hurricane. “A used condom?”
Keegan nods. “Dee said your dad had it tested, and they couldn’t figure out whose DNA it was.” He peers up. “Do you think it was my dad’s?”
“I’ll kill him,” I growl.
My own stomach clenches, and I understand Keegan’s reaction now. I will fucking kill him. All those times he ogled me and my sister. The countless times we changed so that his eyes wouldn’t linger.
I will fucking kill him. I will wrap my hands around his throat until I squeeze the life from him. I’m one hundred percent positive that Leo will hold him down for me. But I’m doing it.
“Maybe he found out about Delilah’s virginity,” Alaric offers. “There are some sick men that will pay a hefty price for innocent females.” He trails off at the end, peering at me apologetically.
Anger whips through me. “Because God forbid a woman fucking decides what she wants for her own body. I guess I should thank you, Oliver, for fucking me when we were merely teens so I didn’t have a price on my cunt for rich old perverts to fucking salivate over.”
Virginity…
A woman’s choice…
The tears come, and Oliver is right there, wrapping his arms around me like the steadfast person in my life he’s always been. He holds me so tight, but I want him closer. I want his imprint to stay on me forever.
“She just wanted to wait…” I say, and my voice comes out so cracked that I’m unsure anyone could even understand what I’m saying.
Oliver rubs my back. “Of course she did. She wanted love. And I loved you then, and I always will, Edie.”
I cling to him, my fingers curling and turning into claws as I try to keep him against me.
“She got what she wanted,” Keegan whispers. “I was with Dee.”
I open my eyes, and through a fractured gaze I find a lonely Keegan with tears tracking down his cheeks.
“At the castle, the night before, Dee and I were together,” he muses, and he cracks a small smile that slips away the moment it appears, as if on a sad breeze. “She got her wish. I took her virginity, Eden. No one else did.” His voice turns firmer. “Just me.”
I close my eyes, taking a deep breath. I wish she would’ve texted. I wish she’d told me. But Dee kept so much to herself while I was away, doing whatever I wanted. She shouldered the burden of everything…including this.
“If Astor tested the semen—”
“Doesn’t mean anything,” I hear Leo interrupt. “It’s not like Leon Forbes’ DNA is in a police file somewhere.”
“We thought it was some degenerate who saw the article in the gossip rag. A stalker or something,” Keegan says.
I take another deep breath and step away from Oliver. He peers down at me, wiping the tears from beneath my eyes before standing next to me again. He squeezes my hand.
“Keegan,” I start, “I have one thing to say to you and then I have a question.”
His jaw feathers as he waits for me to lay it on him.
From what he’s said, Dee was happy with him in the end. He ended up being everything she knew he could be, and for that, I’m extremely grateful. He was there for her. He loved her. A fool would think otherwise.
And for that, I’m as nice as I possibly can be in this moment.
“If I ever see you making a female uncomfortable again, I will cut your balls off. If you’re ever around someone who is making a female uncomfortable and you don’t fucking speak up, I will cut your balls off. Do you know the”—I shake involuntarily—“disgust we felt when your father used to look at us with his gross-ass stares? Like he was undressing us?”