Chapter 15: Emotionally Involved
Within seconds, Levi had come around the desk and he stood before Lyse before gently tilting her head up so that he could have a better look at her face. Despite her attempts to use makeup to bury the signs, he could tell that she had been hurt.
Her left eye was red and the skin around it was slightly swollen. He had seen her only yesterday so it must have happened after she left the office. He could not see the extent of damage because of the makeup and he wanted to repeatedly slam the face of whoever it was that had dared to lift a hand against her.
The grin was wiped clean off Lyse’s face when Levi tenderly touched her face, softly tracing the edges of what was most likely a purple bruise around her eye.
Then in a deceptively soft voice because despite how he sounded Lyse could still see the rage brimming in his eyes. She shivered as he asked. "Who did this to you?"
Lyse suddenly felt uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her and touching her and she took a step back and self consciously looked down at her feet.
"I ran into a door, it was dark and I did not realize where I was going." And even though she had rehearsed her little lie throughout the morning, it still did not come out smoothly.
Levi examined her, noting that she refused to look up at him and he knew that she was lying but he could not think of how she could have gotten such a bruise, making him wonder if she had been beaten.
"That is a lie." Levi said at last and Lyse’s head snapped up.
"You did not get that from running into anything, you must have gotten into a fight of some sort." Levi insisted calmly.
"I did not—"
Levi suddenly stepped forward again and grabbed her jaw, this time holding her in place so that she would not be able to retreat like before.