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“How can you say that when it’s obvious you’re angry and hateto do with him?”

He was angry So in him that he didn’t even understand Clair wasn’t stupid, weak or avaricious Why, then, had she let herself become involved with such a man?

“All right, yes,” he ground out with enough fervor to make her start “I want to kno, Clair How could you let him near you? How could you not see hireen jealousy rose in him “How could you—”

Not wait for me

He jerked his head to the side, hands fisting defensively, terrified by what he’d almost said His heart pounded and sweat broke on his brow and upper lip He rees, he really had no right to her

“In part, I was just very naive,” she said with quiet self-reproach

“I know you’re naive,” he countered, incensed by the rerammed to protect that vulnerability in her, even from—especially from—himself After all, if he’d finished his story earlier, he’d have revealed that he was ultimately responsible for his father’s death That his father had stepped into a fight Aleksy had started and that when Aleksy had finished it, he’d walked aith two lives on his conscience Three if he counted his mother

He kept looking for qualities in Clair that he disliked so he could feel less disgusted with hiee of an innocent Her next words proved it

“It was the first tiled out as special I was susceptible to that,” Clair adether with humiliation

Aleksy seemed to freeze into an even stiller statue Clair experienced that old feeling of wanting to fade into the wallpaper, hiding her flaws so no one would see why she didn’t deserve to be chosen and taken home It was painful to stand tall and own her th froht

“When I was growing up, the hoement with the school nearby If we kept our noses clean, we could attend and have the saher education as the rich kids I gave it a shot, but I wasn’t a genius, just average And I wasn’t rich I alore secondhand uniforot invited to parties The kids weren’t trying to be mean I just wasn’t one of them”