To ruin an Omega novel Chapter 445

Chapter 445: Unravel 2

HAZEL

Lysander finally moved. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

"Father," he said. "This is unnecessary."

Did Lysander just defend me?

Wenzel did not look at him. He kept his eyes trained on me as he waited for a response.

"What conversation?" I finally asked.

Wenzel smiled then. "You see, Lysander? Even she understands the necessity of this. You’re a smart girl, Hazel. Resourceful. Adaptable. That’s what your grandmother said about you, and I believe her."

He stood and smoothed down the front of his shirt. When he looked at me again. His features were harder as he spoke.

"It is not about the conversation. I frankly do not give a damn what you girls talk about. He says, but your conversation has to be something that will tear her away from Skollrend. For a very short time. I’ll give you time to think about it. But not too much time. The heat season is coming, and once that starts, everyone will be too distracted to focus on anything else. I need your answer before then."

He walked toward the door. Lysander stepped aside to let him pass.

Wenzel paused at the threshold and looked back at me.

"A few hours, Hazel. That’s all the time you have."

Then he left.

The door closed behind him, and the silence that followed was suffocating.

I stared at the empty chair where Wenzel had been sitting. My hands were shaking again. I pressed them flat against the table to stop the tremor.

Lysander still stood by the door. He had not moved. He had not spoken.

I looked at him.

"Are you going to say something?" I asked.

He met my eyes. For a moment, I thought I saw something there. Regret maybe. Or anger. But it was gone before I could name it.

"What do you want me to say?"

"I don’t know. Anything. Something."

He shook his head.

"There’s nothing to say."

"Your father just asked me to spy on my sister. On the Luna of Skollrend. The woman you have obsessed over. And you think there’s nothing to say?"

All I was soing and saying was all to save my neck because this would never end well for me. It was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

It hurt that Lysander’s expression did not change.

"What I think doesn’t matter. What he wants is what matters."

"That’s it? That’s all you have?"

He looked away.

"If you want advice, you should do what he asks."

The words hit me like a slap.

I stood. My chair scraped against the floor.

"You’re serious."

"I’m practical."

"You’re a coward."

Lysander flinched. It was subtle, but I saw it.

"Believe what you want," he said. "But if you refuse him, it won’t end well for you. And I can’t protect you from that."

"I’m not asking you to protect me."

"Good. Because I wouldn’t even if you did."

A sharp, bitter laugh tore out of me before I could stop it.

"Of course you wouldn’t," I said. "That would require you to actually stand for something."

His jaw tightened, but he didn’t respond. He just stood there, shoulders rigid, like if he stayed still enough, none of this would touch him.

I took a step closer.

"Tell me something, Lysander," I said, my voice lower now, steadier. "All those years. All that obsession. All that... whatever you want to call it. Did it mean anything at all?"

His gaze flickered, just for a second.

That was enough.

"You loved her," I pressed. "Everyone knows it. Even me... The new one in this space and your supposed bride-to-be. You didn’t even try to hide it. You looked at her like she was the only thing in the world that made sense to you."

He inhaled slowly, like he was bracing himself.

"And now?" I continued. "Now your father is planning something against her, something you know is bad enough to ’reshape the fucking political landscape,’ and you’re just... standing here?"

All I got back was silence. But I had played these cards before. I was getting somewhere.

"Say it," I snapped. "Say you’re going to let it happen."

His eyes snapped back to mine.

"I never said that."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "You didn’t have to. It’s written all over you."

I stepped even closer, until there was barely any space between us.

"You’re going to let him use me," I said. "You’re going to let him drag me into whatever this is, and you’re going to stand there and watch. Just like you always do. Despite the one woman you claim to love being involved in this. I know you don’t care for me. But her?"

"That’s not—"

"It is," I cut in. "Because if you actually cared about her, if any part of what you felt was real, you wouldn’t be this calm right now."

That did it.

Something cracked.

Lysander moved suddenly, closing the distance between us in a single step. His hand came up, gripping my arm, not hard enough to hurt but firm enough to stop me from pulling away.

"Don’t," he said quietly.

But there was something in his voice now. Something raw.

"Don’t what?" I challenged. "Don’t say the truth?"

"You don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Then explain it to me."

His grip tightened for a fraction of a second before he let go, like he caught himself.

"I said," he repeated, slower this time, "you don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Then make me understand," I said. "Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re about to let your father destroy the woman you claim to—"

"Enough."

The word came out sharp.

For a moment, neither of us moved.

Then he ran a hand through his hair and turned away from me, pacing once across the room before stopping near the window.

"I would never let harm befall her," he said.

His voice was quieter now, but steadier. Controlled.

"Never."

I stared at his back.

"Really?" I said. "Because this looks a lot like you letting harm walk right through the front door."

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