Page 108 of My Sweetest Agony

“That night, when you came back to town. Is that why? Because you were making amends?”

Cam watches me for a second, as if he’s unsure how to answer or how I’ll respond to it, before he shakes his head. Those warring emotions that always seem to battle in his eyes continue their melee. “No. That wasn’t why I came.”

“Then why did you?”

He clenches his jaw, a muscle there ticcing as he considers me. “I had to make sure you were okay. To check up on you…”

“So, you came all the way from London to do that? You couldn’t have just asked your mother? You couldn’t have called?”

All those things would have been much easier, especially since he apparently has no intention of letting Nancy know he’s here anytime in the near future.

But Cam shakes his head, his hold on my chin tightening. “No. I had to see you myself. And warn you.”

“That you were back in town?”

He nods.

None of it makes any sense.

The way he looks at me…

These overwhelming feelings that seem to bubble up inside me with a simple touch from him…

All the secrets and lies that have been told to me by Drew and him have left me unable to grasp what’s real without questioning it.

And having to stare into Cam’s eyes doesn’t help matters.

I pull free from his hold, turn, and look at Prometheus again.

At the agony he’s suffering.

His clenched fists.

The eagle’s talon digging into his eye, tearing into his flesh.

This is how Camden sees himself—a victim of unintended consequences.

And my heart shatters for him because of that.

Because he’s proven to me time and time again since he’s been back how caring he is, how kind, always looking out for me, taking care of me even when I don’t want to let anyone.

Yet, it’s right there in the blood spilling from Prometheus—the unintended consequences.

Cam sitting down on that bench with me that night, not correcting me when I thought he was Drew, led to their relationship being destroyed, even as it helped build mine with his brother based on a lie.

A tear starts to blur my vision, and I quickly blink it away, refusing to cry again for a man who still holds so many secrets.

I can see them in his eyes, hiding in those shadows that always consumes them.

He may have come clean about a lot of things, but there are some he keeps locked down deep. Truths he refuses to tell because he’s terrified of the consequences.

Something tells me I’ll never know—not those hidden truths and not the man standing beside me.

Not truly.

He and Drew both had secrets, but Camden’s are undoubtedly far worse if this painting is any reflection of them.

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