Filed To Story: Between Two Kings: A Split or Swallow Book PDF Free
“So you said.”
Evelyn leaned forward. “Have you ever been broken up with, Tem?”
“No. I haven’t.”
“Then you can’t possibly imagine what it feels like.”
“I can imagine I wouldn’t accept being broken up with via letter.”
“Even if I had come back, his father wouldn’t have allowed us to be together.”
“I wouldn’t have accepted that either.”
“Then you don’t know Maximus as well as I do.”
“And how well do you know him?” This time Tem was the one asking pointed questions cloaked in innocence.
But Evelyn was clearly done playing games. She stood, crossing to the liquor shelf and gesturing at the bottles. “Shall we have some champagne?”
“I don’t drink champagne.”
“Oh, you must. It’s fabulous.”
Tem opened her mouth to protest again, but Evelyn was already pouring her a glass. She handed it to Tem, who took it with a grimace.
“This is our best champagne,” Evelyn said. “Worth its weight in gold.”
Tem looked down at the sparkling liquid with disgust. Anything worth its weight in gold was hardly worth anything to her. She’d bet that each sip probably cost more than her childhood cottage.
“Try it,” Evelyn insisted.
Tem raised the glass to her lips and took the world’s smallest sip. It tasted like dust to her.
“Well? Isn’t it delicious?”
Tem set down her glass. “Were you ever planning on coming back? After Maximus had died, say?”
Evelyn raised her eyebrows. She took a delicate sip of her champagne. “That’s quite morbid, don’t you think?”
“Not really. Everyone dies.”
Another sip of champagne disappeared down her throat. Then: “Life here was…difficult…as I’m sure you know.”
Was Evelyn referring to her own life in the village? Or was she attempting to relate to Tem, referencing her childhood on the chicken farm? Tem was surprised she knew anything about that, considering Leo was supposedly so secretive.
“Yes,” said Tem stiffly. “I can. But surely being just one village over was no less difficult?”
Was it her imagination, or did Evelyn avoid eye contact at the question?
“Well.” She played with the flute of her champagne glass. “It wasn’t…so bad.”
Tem’s senses pricked. Had she met someone? Was that what made life one village over not so bad? Had she fallen in love with a man who wasn’t Leo? But if that were the case, why had she returned? It would have been impossible to leave a new husband without making a scene.
“And what wasn’t so bad about it?” Tem prompted. She even raised the champagne to her lips to look like she was drinking it.
Evelyn shrugged, still looking down at her glass.
She was avoiding the question. There was something going on here, and Tem was determined to figure out what it was.
“I know if it were me,” Tem said pointedly, “I’d want to check up on Leo, just to make sure he hadn’t moved on.”
Silence.
“Then again, if I’d moved on myself, I wouldn’t care whether he had as well.”
A razor-thin pause. Evelyn’s eyes met hers. “Is that what you think? That I moved on?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
To her surprise, Evelyn let out a small laugh. “I didn’t move on, Tem.”
The way she said it made it seem like it should be obvious. But nothing about this conversation was obvious. Evelyn was proving impossible to figure out, and Tem was tired of talking in circles. She leaned in. “Then why did you leave? What did Maximus write in the letter? Did he threaten you?”
“Of course not. A king would never stoop so low.”
Tem snorted. A king certainly would. “What, then?”
Evelyn slid her finger up the flute of her champagne. She didn’t answer.
Tem stared at her blankly. What could be worth leaving Leo? She herself had only done it because she’d assumed he’d be better off with Evelyn. An assumption, she was rapidly learning, that was a categorically false one.
Still, Evelyn said nothing.
In the silence, Tem’s brain worked furiously. Why had Evelyn really left? She didn’t believe for a second that a letter would have done the trick. Not if she were truly in love. It wasn’t enough. It didn’t add up. There had to be another reason.
How much did Evelyn know about their current circumstances? Did she know that Tem was the reason they were even sitting here-that Tem had been the one to order Leo to find her? Tem would have thought it would’ve been the first thing Leo told her. But according to Evelyn, he was secretive. He was keeping things from her. He was lying.
But Tem didn’t care whether Leo lied. She cared whether Evelyn did.
Perhaps it was all an excuse-the letter, Maximus, all of it. It was Evelyn’s way out-her story to tell so that she didn’t seem like the villain. Her lie.
Tem leaned in.
“Do you want to know what I think? I think Maximus never wrote you a letter. That’s why you don’t have it.”
Evelyn’s lips pursed. She didn’t reply.
But Tem couldn’t stop. “I think you wanted to leave him. I don’t know why-that’s between you and Kora-but I think you were too much of a coward to tell him, so you left town. When he came to find you, you made up the story about the letter so he would take you back. And now you’re looking to me for support, to corroborate your lie. But I won’t do it.”
Evelyn still didn’t reply. She was watching Tem with shrewd intelligence, analyzing her.
“I’ll tell Leo,” Tem said.
A cruel smile tilted Evelyn’s lips. Finally, she spoke. “Will you now?”
A tenuous silence fell. The two women stared at each other.
“You don’t know my story,” Evelyn continued, her voice dangerously low. “And you’d better be absolutely sure you’re right before saying anything to Leo.”
Despite herself, Tem faltered. Evelyn hadn’t confirmed her theory. She’d only smiled in that creepy way-hardly an admission of guilt. Tem had no proof that she’d left Leo of her own accord. Only suspicion. And she could not go to Leo with a suspicion. It wasn’t enough. It would ruin everything, and what if Tem was wrong? What then?