Page 75 of Ruin
"And what if I say no?"
"Then one of us dies tonight. Either you pull that trigger, or I take the gun away from you and we settle this a different way."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's reality. We can't go back to what we were. We can't pretend this conversation didn't happen. We can't coexist knowing what we both know. So we move forward together, or we end it here."
She studies my face, looking for lies, for manipulation, for any sign that this is another game.
I let her see the truth—that I love her, that I need her, that I'd rather die than lose her but I'll kill her if I have to.
"If I say yes—hypothetically—what happens to Michelle? To people who might figure out the truth?"
"Nothing. They're not threats anymore. You are. You're the one who knows everything, who has all the evidence, who could destroy me with a phone call. You're the one who decides what happens next."
"So, you'd trust me? With everything?"
"I already do. You could end my empire tonight with that evidence. The fact that you haven't tells me everything I need to know about what you really want."
She lowers the gun slightly, just a few inches. Not enough to be safe, but enough to show she's considering it.
"This is insane."
"Most worthwhile things are."
"My parents?—"
"Are dead. Have been dead for nine years. Nothing we do will change that." I lean forward slightly. "But you're alive. And you get to decide what that life looks like."
She's wavering.
I can see it in the set of her shoulders, the way she's holding the gun, the conflict playing out across her features.
She wants to say yes.
Part of her has wanted this since she was sixteen years old and witnessed real power for the first time.
"I need time," she says finally. "Time to think, to process all of this."
"How much time?"
"I don't know. Days. Weeks. Maybe months."
I nod slowly. "And until then?"
"Until then, you stay away from me. No contact. No watching me. No manipulation." She raises the gun again. "And if I decide the answer is no..."
"Then you know where to find me."
She walks me to the door, gun still drawn but no longer aimed directly at my chest.
When I reach for the deadbolt, she speaks again.
"Cassius?"
I turn back to her.
She looks impossibly small in the doorway, overwhelmed by the weight of everything she's learned tonight.
