Page 157 of Saint Céline
“Sorry,” I said. “I just didn’t expect a man to lie that smoothly while standing in my living room.”
Vincent’s eyes shifted to me.
I looked away first. Anger still burned in my chest, but underneath it sat something heavier—relief that he was here, relief that my father had left. I still hated him for bringing Daniel back into my life, yet I saw the regret in the way his shoulders sat a little lower than usual. Maybe my attraction clouded everything, but right now, Vincent felt like the only person who could stand between me and the mess I had created in my life.
Sophia stepped closer.
“You can stay here with us.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
I glanced at the locked door, then the windows, then the thin hallway outside our suite. Anyone could walk up, knock, listen. The dorm had felt safe because Sophia and Anya lived here, because Miss Astoria slept on my bed, because the three of us had built something small and steady out of late-night takeout and borrowed clothes. Now my father knew exactly where to find me. Worse, the rest of campus had heard him call me by the wrong name in public. Secrets I could manage. Gossip that gathered in groups I could not.
“He came to campus,” I said quietly. “He will come here next.”
Anya’s face tightened with anger before she smoothed it out.
“Then we call campus security.”
“And tell them what?”
“That your abusive father is harassing you.”
The word hung there between us.
I felt Vincent’s eyes on me—guilt, concern, and something protective all mixed together.
Sophia’s voice softened. “That is what happened, right?”
I looked down at the white fur under my fingers. I could have said yes or no or tried to explain in a way that made me sound less reckless for handing my life over to Vincent right now.
Instead, I said, “Security keeps records. Records create questions I don’t want to answer.”
Sophia understood right away.
Anya took a second longer, then her anger shifted into something helpless.
“Céline.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that, but I don’t think you do.”
“I do.” My voice came out sharper than I meant it to. “I know exactly how this looks. I know moving in with him is probably stupid. I know you both hate it, and I would hate it if either of you tried the same thing. But Daniel will come back, and Vincent is the only one who can make him think twice before he does.”
Vincent stayed perfectly still.
Sophia looked at him again.
“That had better be true.”
“It is,” he said.
“And if she wants to leave at any point?”
“She leaves.”
