Chapter 20 · Who did you love?

She grabbed his coat and slammed him against the server rack. The metal shook. Dust dropped from the ceiling.

"Who did you love?" she asked.

Ethan's face changed.

There it was. Not fear. Not guilt.

Pain.

Celine shoved the knife up under his jaw again.

"Who did you love enough to destroy me for?"

He stared at her like she had asked a question with only one possible answer.

"You."

The word hit her in the chest.

"Wrong."

"Celine—"

"Don't say my name like you still own it."

"I never owned you."

"You erased me."

"I tried to keep you alive."

"You let me wake up as a stranger."

"Because the woman who remembered Blackwater would have gone back to Vault. You would have opened every file, walked into that building, and asked the system to recognize you. They would have killed you before you reached the elevator."

"So you let me think I was crazy?"

"I let you have a chance."

"A chance to do what?"

"To stay away. To live without becoming the person you were in that room."

Celine's laugh broke this time.

"You really believe that?"

"I watched you hit START.