Page 147 of Loving the Tormentor

I pause, looking out the bay windows. Rain is falling on the lake, the end of the day gray and heavy. It'll be night soon, and it'll count as another day since Nyx's betrayal.

He takes another moment to swallow the truth before he finally says, "I get it. The Circle is the main reason Peach doesn't want kids."

"You want kids now?" I ask, surprised.

He chuckles. "No. Nothing before we both get our master’s degrees. But when we talk about our future, this is what it always comes back to. That we wouldn't want to risk the Circle getting their hands on them to keep growing. I just…"

He throws his head back, clearly torn between staying mad at me and moving forward.

"I thought we were in this together, Achilles. You, me, Ella, Peach, Chris. We wereallforced into the Circle. We were fighting them together. Fuck, you blackmailed Peach using Hermes's account."

"I used her to take members down without it being linked to me," I admit. "But it worked. It weakened them. And insisting on you initiating her made you dangerous for them. Because your need to protect her always takes over your sanity. You burned down the temple, the maze. Do you even realize the progress we made because of that?"

"How am I supposed to forgive you for using us? We could’ve agreed to it had you at leasttalkedto us about it."

"Or you could’ve refused. That’s a risk I wasn’t willing to take. The Circle has to disappear. For Sophie’s safety. It’salwaysSophie first."

I shake my head, looking right into his eyes. "I don't know how you’re supposed to forgive me. I did many things I can't even forgive myself for. I don't expect anyone to. But up untilNyx stabbed me in the back, my daughter was safe, and no one in the Circle knew about her. Up until then, I wasthisclose to bringing her here."

He eyes the way my index finger and thumb practically press together.

"Have you ever thought of going to her? Leaving instead of blowing everything up to bring her here?"

I cock an eyebrow at him, and he runs a hand through his chestnut hair as he looks away, already knowing how dumb his question is.

"It doesn't matter where I go, Wren. It's being near me that puts Sophie at risk. So long as my father and his Circle exist, I can't see her. I worked on this for years, and all it took was one woman to take me down."

Something in his blue eyes shifts, and that's where the difference between him and I truly shows. His empathy is something I could never understand.

"How old is she?" he asks softly.

"Four. Stupid drunken night with a French girl from Paris turned into the most beautiful mistake of my life."

He smiles kindly. "Can I see her?"

Any excuse to look at my little girl. I pull out my phone, going into the photos my mom sends me, and show him one of her holding her purple bat teddy. She's got her chin up, looking down at the camera. Her steel eyes are so much bigger than mine, and her blonde hair is what makes it so easy for my mom to make everyone believe that she's her daughter.

"Holy fuck." Wren lets out one long breath. "So that's where your passion for bats comes from."

A small laugh escapes me. "Yeah. She's obsessed."

"Shit, Achilles. She's got your arrogance."

"Fuck off." I snort. "She simply knows the truth. That she's better than everyone else."

I pull my phone away as he asks, "When did you tell Nyx about her?"

"I went in slowly. Told her she was my sister. But then…" I huff, reality hitting me hard. "Ireallythought she wasn't working with my dad, Wren. That ship of mistrust had sailed. She seemed too honest. So…in love."

Eyebrows furrowed, he looks at me with a pity he's never had for me before.

"I know what it's like to have the person you love hide something so important from you. Or to play with your head. You have to talk to her. Hear her out."

"Ican't." The anger comes back tenfold, beating on the pain. "She knew about Sophie. She did it anyway. I’ll never forgive her for this."

"But you saved her."

I blink at him, frozen.