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Is he trying to rewrite everything that happened because he thinks I don't remember? Is that his game? Bend my reality until I cannot separate what is real from what isn't? Gods. I thought he was scum before but he is way worse.

He looks every part the broken hearted prince as he spins more lies that genuinely have me questioning my sanity. He tells me that he gave me everything, laid the world at my feet, never cared that I was an Omega and would have made me his Luna if I didn't leave him.

What in the world...

"It is not that you don't have a choice. You do, but the negative answer will yield negative consequences."

I lick my dry lips, feigning conflict. Pretending when your life depends on it comes easily. "You will immediately let Soren go if I accept."

Ronan smiles and nods earnestly. "He will be delivered to his pack unharmed."

I don't know how I know it, but he is lying to me. The too eager smile. The drumming of his fingers. "I-I... Let me think about it."

Before he leaves, he moves on me with that eerie swiftness, trapping me by the wall and I taste my own vomit when he shoves his tongue into my mouth and kisses me roughly. "Don't keep me waiting too long, Fina."

Ronan visits me more times than I can count.

He lies to me, manipulates the truth of our past to fit with the narrative he wants me to eat up. He was the perfect boyfriend. I was the coward. Soren is the villain.

I pretend to believe him if it means he will let me out of the bedroom.

He doesn't.

Day after day, my frustration builds. I hear Landon's cries, but I can never see him. And in the event that I do, it is from afar, from the windows of my room at the very top of the mansion while Tova takes him on a walk in his cradle. While Kaida holds him. While some maid feeds him milk.

Many times I get the urge to jump out the window and see if I'll hit the ground in one piece. I don't do it because I'm treading eggshells where Ronan is concerned.

Negative responses/actions yield negative consequences.

So I wait. Reel it in, even when it begins to properly choke me. I wait for Soren's plan to fall into place.

On the sixth day, when I fumble for the doorknob, it gives. There are three guards stationed outside, but they don't stop me when I step outside. Or dash for the nursery. They follow me, but I hardly notice.

However, when I reach the nursery, I find Tova sitting by the cot, rocking Landon back and forth as he sleeps. My lips quiver as I stare at his blonde curls and brows, his small pouted lips that suck at nothing and a small noise echoes in the back of my throat as I take a step forward.

But a guard stands in my way, stopping me from entering.

"Ron says you can't hold him," Tova says without looking at me. Her brown hair covers most of her face from me, falling in elegant waves down her back. "He tells me you might hurt him in your fragile state of mind."

I stare at her, aghast. He would lie to keep me from Landon? I start forward. "Tova, please?—"

A tiny chuckle begins and she shakes her head. "You know, for the longest time, I thought I knew him. I knew he could be cruel, but being Head Alpha didn't come to the faint of heart. He told me he chose me because I saw him for who he was and loved him anyway."

She turns to look at me, then, and I bite back a gasp. She has a black eye and a ring of bruises around her neck. "Safe to say I realized how naive I was the moment you left. Though, I didn't even know how deeply his lies ran at the time."

When she rises from the stool, I notice how lean she's become since I last saw her, her gown barely holding over her bony frame, and I momentarily forget my problems and gasp, "Are you alright?"

She laughs at the question. "You don't seem all that mad to me.

I guess he lied about that, too." Then, she tilts her head in a manner I assume she learned from Soren.

Her hazel eyes flicker towards the guards listening to every word, no doubt to report back to Ronan, and her expression turns sour.

"I hated you, so much that I wished Soren had never saved you or brought you back into our lives.

And though I understand that this isn't your fault, I can't bring myself to welcome you here.

Or get rid of the animosity I still feel. "

I inhale deeply, unsure how to respond, but Tova waves me off.

"But my cousin loves you and Landon. For that reason, I will look after Landon.

You must focus your efforts elsewhere. I have played these games before and there is but one constant.

Blood will be spilled for this to end. Best to ensure it doesn't belong to the wrong person. "

I pause, eyes darting left and right as I try to read the intensity of her gaze.

The guards are present and it is evident they will report back to Ronan.

And we will never be able to meet without supervision to have a proper discussion.

But her words ring in my ears, even long after I leave the nursery.

Focus your efforts elsewhere ...on getting Soren out. On...killing Ronan. Because he doesn't plan on letting Soren go. My response never mattered.

He was always going to kill Soren.