Building Her Throne Burying My Heart (Claire) novel Chapter 83

The fishy smell was making me feel sick, so Susan told me to help her out by trimming the flowerbeds. That’s how I ended up out here. But Garrison, well, I could tell he was looking for trouble. With just the two of us outside, he dropped the nice guy act right away.

“I have to say, you’re really hard to kill,” he said, flashing a cold, twisted smile.

That was all the confirmation I needed. It was him. He was the one who set me up. The guy who tried to ruin me was standing right in front of me, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

I didn’t give him the satisfaction of a reaction. That seemed to egg him on, and his words got nastier, his attitude more smug. I gripped the shears and snapped them shut on a branch right next to him, making a loud, sharp sound. He jumped back in surprise.

“What are you doing? You planning to get back at me or something?”

I just let out a cold laugh and went back to trimming. “Why so jumpy? What, is your conscience bothering you?”

For a second, he looked nervous, but just as quickly he covered it up with another sneer. “I don’t have anything to feel guilty about. If anyone’s guilty here, it’s you.”

I moved closer, snipping branches near him, each cut more aggressive than the last. I just kept pushing forward. “If you weren’t hiding something, why would you immediately assume I’m after revenge?”

“If you weren’t guilty, why do you always look so scared?”

“If you weren’t so desperate, why do you lose it every time I get close to Claire?”

“And if you’re really innocent, why do you look so disappointed that I survived?”

I stopped what I was doing and looked him in the eye. I couldn’t let him get the last word, not after everything he’d done. Even if I couldn’t beat him physically, I could still hit where it hurt.

“I’m not the one who should feel hopeless. I just feel sorry for you,” I said, my voice steady.

“You had a thing for Claire way back in school, but she picked me. If you hadn’t schemed and lied, you never would have had a chance to get close to her or play the hero. In the end, the only reason she let you in was because she was hurting. Do you really think it was love? That she actually wanted you?”

Garrison’s face went dark, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles turned white. I kept going.

“You’re so insecure about where you stand with her that you keep pulling these pathetic stunts. It’s actually sad, you know. Most people get love without having to scheme and fight for it, but not you.”