The drive back to the estate was silent, but the air was electric. Ren sat as far from Vane as the leather seat would allow, his lips still burning, his soul feeling like it had been turned inside out.
When the car pulled up to the front doors, the house looked different. The white lilies Julian had placed in the foyer looked dead. The warmth was gone.
"Go to him," Vane murmured as Ren stepped out of the car. Vane didn't move to follow. He stayed in the shadows of the vehicle, his eyes cold and unreadable. "He's waiting for you. Give him the lie he needs to sleep tonight."
Ren walked up the stairs, his legs feeling like lead. He pushed open the door to the bridal suite, expecting to find Julian asleep.
Instead, Julian was sitting at the small mahogany desk, the "dock emergency" paperwork spread out before him. A single lamp was lit, casting his face in a harsh, sickly yellow light.
He didn't look up when Ren entered.
"I called the foreman at the northern docks tonight," Julian said, his voice eerily calm.
Ren froze. "Julian, it's late. You should be resting—"
"He said there was no seizure, Ren." Julian finally looked up. His eyes were red-rimmed, his face pale. He looked like a man who had just seen a ghost. "He said the Master's business ran perfectly last night. No breaches. No police. Nothing."
Julian stood up, walking toward Ren with slow, shaking steps. He stopped a foot away, his eyes searching Ren's face, then drifting down to the black turtleneck.
"Why did he lie to me, Ren? Why did he send me away on our wedding night?"
Ren couldn't breathe. The lie was caught in his throat like a shard of bone. "Julian, I... I don't know."
"You were with him today," Julian whispered, his voice cracking. "In the city. All day. And now you come back wearing his colors, with that look in your eyes..."
Julian reached out, his hand trembling as he touched the silver thorn in Ren's ear. "He bought you, didn't he? He didn't just pay the debt. He bought you."
The truth was a physical presence in the room, heavy and suffocating. Ren looked at the boy he had vowed to love and felt a wave of devastating pity—but no regret.
"Julian—"
"Did he touch you?" Julian shrieked, the sudden volume making Ren flinch. "Tell me the truth! Did my father touch you while I was away?!"
The silence that followed was the loudest thing in the world.