Hold Me Close - Talia Hibbert Page 0,47

that, for all his faults, Mr. Burne had never touched her either. He just hated the idea of her. Of his son with her.

Which was not her problem, and never fucking had been.

“If you’d never sunk your claws into my son’s gut,” Burne snapped, “I would never have darkened your door! You should be ashamed—”

“Now let’s get one thing straight,” Ruth hissed. “I am not ashamed, and I never will be.”

Those words hadn’t always been true. Two years ago, she’d been nothing but shame—and things had only gotten worse. She’d hidden from the world for shame, and pushed away her friends for shame, and stewed in guilt, which was shame’s best friend.

And now she was fucking tired of it.

“I fell in love with your son,” she said. “I fell in love with the school’s biggest bully, the guy who made fun of my glasses and called me a freak and wanted to kiss me behind the gym, because that’s what teenagers do. They fall in love with the wrong people. And yes, I stayed with him, even though he hid me from the world and treated me like shit—even though you appeared every so often to call me a gold-digging whore—because that’s what people in love do. They make bad choices.”

She broke off, heart pounding, chest heaving, and took in Mr. Burne’s slack expression with something close to pride. He’d wanted to know. He’d always, always wanted to know. He’d screamed at her before, demanding answers Daniel wouldn’t give—first, Why is my son always sneaking off with you? Later, Who gave you that? Who took you there? Was it Daniel? I know it was.

And always, always: Why the hell did it have to be you?

She wasn’t good enough for the Burne family. Even Daniel had told her that.

Seven years, they’d been together. No-one had known ‘til it was over.

“It’s always fascinated me,” Ruth said, “how little you care about Daniel.”

Mr. Burne stiffened. “How dare you?”

“Oh, I dare. It’s disturbing. Almost unnatural. You’re desperate to know why he’s obsessed with me, but you’re not concerned by the fact that your son is obsessive. Do you know he asked me out for two years straight? That’s how long it took him to convince me. And I was a teenager; I thought it was romantic. But now I realise that it was just fucking weird. It was harassment.” She flicked a disdainful look at Mr. Burne. “Like father like son, I suppose.”

His jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue. He dug his fingers into his own thighs, white knuckles against faded denim, and said, “You’re in a talkative mood.”

“Yeah,” she said harshly. “I am. Because I’m sick of this shit. You want to know the truth? Here’s the truth. Daniel knows that you despise him. That you don’t think he’s good enough. You’re the reason he’s a manipulative, hateful bully—and you’re the reason why we were together.”

Mr. Burne’s thick, bristly moustache, auburn streaked with grey, twitched. He wanted to argue so badly, but he remained silent. Waiting for her to hurry up, to get to the point. He didn’t know his son, so he didn’t realise that this was the point.

“I despised Daniel Burne,” she said. “I really, really did. But he was held back in sixth form, and we wound up in the same classes. Eventually, we were paired together for a project, and I came to your house. I don’t think you knew I was there—he wasn’t exactly happy about my presence, and he made me keep it a secret.” She laughed slightly. “I suppose that was a sign. Anyway, you came home from work, and he tried to talk to you, and you spoke to him like he was worthless.”

Even though she’d hated Daniel, her blood had burned. It still burned now, when she remembered the casual way Burne had hurt his only son.

At least the man had the grace to look ashamed. Slightly.

“Daniel came back to his room,” she said. “He knew I’d heard. I expected him to lash out at me, but he didn’t. He just… broke. It was awful. I hated him, but my heart ached for him. So when he kissed me, I allowed it.

“That was the first time he asked me out. Two years later, I finally said yes. But he told me that we had to be a secret, because of you—and I agreed, because I was a romantic fool. I hoped that eventually Daniel would stop trying to gain your approval. I thought that