//CLARA//
The confession should have chilled me more than the water. It should have sent me scrambling out of the tub, away from the man who had just admitted to committing murder like it was nothing.
But I didn't move. I didn't even flinch. I just let the silence settle between us, heavy and honest.
"I won't offer you a lie to make it more palatable," he continued. "I won't acquit my actions. I have done what was necessary to protect what is mine."
I understood that logic better than I wanted to admit. I thought of the corporate boardrooms, the lives I'd stepped over, the reputations I'd dismantled to keep my own head above water.
Different centuries, different weapons… but the same blood on the floor.
"Are you disgusted?" he asked after a moment, his grip tightening just enough for me to feel the tremor in his hands. "Are you afraid of me, Clara?"
I turned my head slightly, catching the dark, haunted line of his jaw. I didn't have to think about it. I simply shook my head.
