Meredith is a hot mess’s Reviews > Nix. > Status Update

I didn’t know it was because of Uilleam,” she said, reminded of his words. “When I found out you had accepted a contract with my mother, I …”
“You thought I was trying to hurt you?”
Luna shook her head. “Not in the way you mean.” She knew he would never do something like that, not purposefully. “I thought you were trying to make a point—teach me a lesson—that business was separate from what we have— had.”

She had spent enough time around the younger Runehart brother to know when he was evading, and that realization made her snap. Jerking one of the knives she kept hidden at her wrists, she palmed it before walking over to him and slamming it down hard into the steak, shattering the plate beneath it.

Uilleam looked from her to it and back again. “You have my attention.

42nd and Hamilton,” she said without preamble, refusing to look away from him. Needing to see even the most minute expression on his face. “You own the warehouse there.”
Uilleam didn’t blink. “I own many warehouses.

There was a dangerous thing about fear and doubts. Sometimes they could be ignored, pushed aside because the worries were unfounded, but other times it only took the smallest bit of information to make those doubts morph into something bigger.
Something like suspicion.
And very much like realization.
Luna didn’t even notice that the woman used a name most didn’t know.

I want to tell you a story,” Belladonna said, though Luna had yet to take her gaze from the television. “About a girl who life was not her own.”

“Now this girl,” Belladonna went on as she twisted the gold Cartier bracelet on her wrist, “beautiful girl, she was, had become a pawn in a game she didn’t know she was playing.

Uilleam’s laugh was harsh. “That’s astonishing coming from the man that decides to get into business with the very people he condemns me for. Did you think I wouldn’t find out about your arrangement with Caesar Rivera? The man couldn’t wait to spread the good news. Do you care to know why? Because the last time I saw them, I told them they were both beneath me.

What can I do for you, Calavera—and does that ever get annoying, having to go by that name? Like everyone calls me Winter, but that’s my name, you know? I’m actually Winter. Which is one of the reasons why I love that show—the books are way better, obviously—but everyone gets all ominous when they say ‘ Winter is coming ,’ and of course I’m like fuck yeah, I’m coming.

It wasn’t done intentionally”
“Wasn’t it?” Kit shot back, scrubbing a hand down his face. “Would an apology be enough for what I caused her to endure? It’s not.”
“We forgive those we love. Isn’t that what you’ve always said?”
But there were just some things one couldn’t slap an apology on and think it would all be the same in the end.Not this. And if he could help it,she would never find out the truth about that day

I have to give the author credit, pieces are coming together. Things that I felt were vague in the Kingmaker saga are answered here.

“Before his unfortunate accident, Uilleam had plans to expose Carmen—it was why he was sending your wife to California. Both she and Ariana were meant to be in attendance at the meeting, but I intercepted the intel of Uilleam finding out and had them removed. If he would have gotten his way, things would have gone very bad, very quickly. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Elias to Kit.