“Hybrids,” I insisted. “Don’t fight me on this. You know I’m right. They know they can get at one of us with the other.”

“So we’ll solve the problem, not run from it. I can’t believe you’re saying this,” he seethed. “You of all people, who stood in the freezing rain for fifteen minutes because you didn’t want to wait a few more days for me to appease your mother! Who sliced open your hand and nearly broke your arm because you had to talk to me! Two days ago we decided where our wedding will be, Nina! You’re just going to walk away from everything we’ve been fighting for?”

I couldn’t argue, so I simply nodded my head.

Jared grabbed my shoulders. “I don’t believe you.”

“You said I needed normal.” I hesitated; my next words would cut him. “I can’t have a normal life with you.”

Jared’s eyes turned a midnight blue. “Don’t lie to me, Nina. You want out because you’re afraid something will happen to my family if we stay together. I’m telling you, nothing’s going to happen. I’m asking you to trust me.”

I reached my hand up to touch his cheek; his jaws tensed under his skin. “Something will happen. I don’t know what else to do, Jared. We both have to have some sort of a life.”

“I can’t have a life without you. I don’t want a life without you.” He swallowed hard. His face was locked in an agonizing expression.

I pressed my lips together, determined to make him believe the lie. “This isn’t how I want to live. The fear, the guilt, the looking over my shoulder. We can’t even be intimate.”

Jared took my hand and pressed his lips against my knuckles, closing his eyes tight. “Please…please don’t do this. I can’t go back to that.”

I almost gave in. I wanted to, but I stayed focused on the guilt I felt as I told Lillian goodbye. “You have to go.” I placed the loft key in his palm.

“Nina…,” he choked, looking down at his hand as if I had placed a hot coal there.

I reached down to pull his ring from my finger and he grabbed both of my hands. His face crumpled as if he had taken all he could stand. “Don’t break your promise.”

I relaxed my hands down to my sides. He was right, I had promised.

Jared pulled me into him by my shoulders and kissed me deeply—and I let him. I returned his kiss with the same sadness and fear. He held me so tightly I found it hard to breathe, but I didn’t care. I let him hold me and kiss me however he wanted. It would be our last night together.