Page 96 of The Towering Sky

He had already known that she and Hiral were over.

When the violinist finally finished, and the room erupted in polite applause, Rylin felt as if she’d been torn from a dream.

Cord was walking toward her, a pair of drinks in hand. He saw Rylin and broke out into a wide, eager smile—until he registered her expression, and his handsome features creased in concern.

Rylin couldn’t take it anymore; she stumbled blindly toward the exit, knocking past a waiter with a tray of champagne, letting the flexiglass flutes clatter to the floor. She didn’t even care that the wine had sprayed up onto her skirt.

“Wait, Rylin!”

She whirled around. “Did you help Hiral leave town?” Her throat felt scratchy and dry.

Cord flinched beneath her gaze but didn’t back down. “I did,” he told her. “But please, Rylin, you don’t understand.”

Rylin felt numb with shock. The room seemed to spin around her, everything blurring together like a melting Surrealist painting.

“What part don’t I understand? The part where you helped Hiral get out of the way, or the part where you hit on me two days later?”

Cord flinched at that. “I’m sorry I didn’t wait longer, okay? I just missed you so much; I couldn’t help coming to see you. That’s why I said I wouldn’t be the one to kiss you that day,” he tried to add.

“Right. You showed such restraint.”

“Rylin, you and Hiral were over!”

They had moved toward the front of the party, in the echoing entrance to city hall. Rylin saw an interminable line of hovertaxis already curling around the block outside.

“Hiral wasn’t good for you, and you know it,” Cord told her, and it was the absolute wrong thing to say.

“Howdareyou?” Rylin hissed. Anger and hurt crackled beneath her skin. “You have no right to do that, to keep making decisions on my behalf, okay?”

A couple brushed past them, studiously looking the other direction. Cord blinked, bewildered. “What decisions have I made on your behalf?”

“Breaking up me and my boyfriend, for starters! Making me come to this party, to hang out with your friends, in a dress you picked out.” Rylin had thought this gown was a lovely romantic gesture, but suddenly she saw it in an uglier light. Had Cord bought it because he didn’t want her to embarrass him by showing up in something cheap?

Cord seemed hurt. “I didn’t realize I was forcing you to spend time with me. I thought you wanted to be here.”

“I do want to be here, but, Cord, you never want to be downTower with me!”

“I just thought it was easier meeting up at my apartment. I have more space,” he protested, and Rylin rolled her eyes.

“Right, because god forbid you have to come down to the squalor of the thirty-second floor,” she snapped. “You never even told your friends that I’m not rich, did you? That’s why they thought that I was one of them. Is it because you’re ashamed to be dating me—the girl who used to be your maid?”

“I didn’t bring any of that up because it isn’t important,” Cord said forcefully. “I care about you, Rylin. Where you come from isn’t part of it.”

“Except it is.” Rylin felt angry with him, but most of all, angry with herself for being one of those people who make the same mistake over and over again. “I’m not some charity case, Cord. I’m a person—with feelings.”

“Where is this coming from? I never said you were a charity case!”

“You didn’t have to say it,” Rylin told him, very quietly. Cord’s face grew red in frustration.

“If you would stop being so damned prideful—”

“You’re the one who kept this a secret from me!” Rylin’s eyes burned. “I guess you have no idea how to build trust, because no one ever taught you.”

“‘No one ever taught you’?” Cord said bitingly, repeating her words. “That was cruel, Rylin. I would have thought that you, of all people, wouldn’t jump straight to dead parents.”

She recoiled, suddenly ashamed of herself. “I just meant that you always throw money at problems and expect them to disappear,” Rylin said helplessly. “Even when that problem is an inconvenient boyfriend. I thought—” She ran a hand over her face. “I thought it would be different this time.”

“I thought so too,” Cord said wearily.