The Final Falcon Says I Do

‘I believed you,’ she whispered. ‘Relied on you. I thought you were being so kind to me.’

‘I felt terrible about what happened—how I helped to bring it about. I’d have done anything to make it up to you.’

‘Anything except tell me the truth. Be honest, Jackson, if you know how. You’ve been enjoying watching me be an idiot, haven’t you?’

‘No, I swear it. Freya. you’ve got to believe me.’

‘How can I? When I think of some of the things I said—how I trusted and confided in you. What a fool I must have sounded!’

‘No, I was the fool for damaging you so idiotically. But I did my best to help you survive it—all right, it was a poor best, but I tried. Why don’t we talk later, when you’ve had a chance to calm down?’

She had a feeling that a chilly bleakness had settled over the world.

‘You think I’ll see sense, don’t you?’ she said bitterly. ‘You’re wrong. Nothing will change. You won’t ever look different to me from the way you do now. Mean, spiteful, contemptible.’