The tray remained in front of me, but I didn’t take a single bite. I had no appetite. Raven was back at the camp, and I’d foolishly thought getting Fender to release her would be easy. He was a man who shouldn’t be crossed—and I’d crossed him a couple times. It was a miracle I’d earned his trust in the first place. What were the odds I could ever do it again?

Gilbert approached the table in his tuxedo, his eyes perpetually annoyed whenever he had to be in my presence. “Is there something wrong with the meal?”

“No.” I stirred my tea with the spoon, watching the steam rise.

He waited a moment longer before he turned away.

“Gilbert?”

He halted, and with a loud sigh, he turned back around and regarded me.

“What do I do about Fender?” I was desperate for a solution.

“Why are you asking me?” His tone turned icy, his eyes like rain clouds.

“Because you know him better than anyone else.”

“I think you should leave and never come back, Melanie. That’s what I think.” His words were clipped, every syllable becoming more difficult to speak the longer he had this conversation. “You don’t deserve him. I have no idea why he allowed you to come back at all.”

My eyes returned to the tea. “I missed him every day I was gone—”

“Oh, you missed him?” he asked sarcastically. “Did you miss him when you burned down everything he’d built with his bare hands?”

Now I shut my mouth.

Gilbert turned away.

“I didn’t realize…I’d hurt him so much.”

Gilbert stayed still for a long time, took a deep breath as if deciding if he should just let this conversation drop, but then he turned back to me. “I never thought he was particularly happy when you were here. His mood and behaviors didn’t change. But when you were gone…I definitely noticed the difference.”

His office doors were closed.

But I knew he was inside.

That was where he spent all of his time while he was in the house.

I turned the knob and let myself inside.

He was staring at his laptop, his fingers gliding over the touch pad as he scrolled through a page he read intently. Shirtless, with his big arms on the table, he didn’t notice my entrance, or if he did, he assumed I was Gilbert to feed the fire.

I approached his desk, my feet quiet because I’d ditched my heels in my bedroom.

When I was right in front of him, he lifted his chin with a look of indifference.