What a smart wife I had, she’d planned it all out perfectly.
“We’re going to have to do press conferences, and a lot of them, this isn’t just going to go away. We’ll be in the news for weeks, if not years,” Declan moaned, and I was there with him. The last thing I wanted do was sit in front of the same sharks who were calling for my blood only a few hours ago.
“Did Melody speak about any of this with you?” my father asked.
“Talk to me about something? What do I look like, her husband?” I laughed bitterly as I drank.
“Liam?” he questioned me again.
“Why the hell did you let me get married?” I sighed, as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “She didn’t say anything about it, and I didn’t give her the chance.”
“What are you going to do?” Neal asked.
“Right now I’m going to try to wash the stench of jail off of me. Then I’m going to drink…actually I’m going to do both at the same time¸ and only after that I may speak with her.” Or strangle her…Walking out the room, a few maids curtsied as I passed them, which reminded me that I needed to do another background check and establish some sort of leverage on all of them.
“Liam,” Olivia called out from behind me.
I stopped in the middle of the marble staircase.
“Liam, I’m sorry I didn’t come to visit you,” she whispered. “I spent most of my time with Ethan.”
“I noticed, you seem attached,” I replied, as I turned back to face her. Which was why I hadn’t wanted her near him to begin with.
She squeezed her hands, and bit her bottom lip. “I am, and that’s not my fault. I’ve been here for five months and I’ve watched him become more amazing with each passing day. I care about him, and I’m worried that whatever you all are getting into is going to affect him. I’m sorry to say it, but neither of you have been great parents. In fact, neither of you have been parents. But what do you expect when the both of you are so wrapped up in this family. I don’t want him to get hurt.”
“He is not your son, Olivia.”
She looked as if I’d just slapped her. “I…I know that.”
“Do you really?”
I stared at her for a moment, but apparently she couldn’t find the words to say anything else, so I turned around and walked away.
“Goodnight, Olivia, I hope for your sake you never bring this up again, ever.”
“Threaten me all you want, Liam, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong!”
Rolling my eyes, I tried to ignore the headache that seemed to have been building all day. I’d literally just gotten out of jail for the love of Christ. There should be a waiting period before dealing with all this shit.
But I knew I wouldn’t get one.
I knew we would have to face off with Ivan—Avian—whatever the hell he called himself. But we couldn’t just jump back into everything like nothing had happened.
Step one was to fix my family.
It was going to take some time to get to our revenge.
But it would be worth it.
MELODY
“Mel, I’m sure this can wait,” Coraline said to me as I moved the furniture in Ethan’s room around. But it couldn’t wait. It wasn’t safe.
“I’d rather not,” I said to her.
Ethan was fast asleep under his custom-initialed, teal, cashmere blanket. They had kept the theme I had chosen for him—the rainforest, though they’d done what they always did and made it over the top, but it was still beautiful. However, his crib needed to be further away from the door and the window. Surprisingly, as I moved it, he didn’t wake up.
Evelyn sat in the rocking chair, glaring at me as I ignored her. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t do it here. So instead, she threw out small jabs at me.
“He’ll wake up at three a.m. No matter when we let him down for his nap, he’ll sleep until three a.m. and then wake up again,” Coraline snickered, as she picked a pair of tiny socks up off the ground and moved it to his dresser.
“Yes, if you plan on being in his life longer than a day this time, you should get used to it.”
That had been Evelyn’s fourth underhanded comment since we had stepped into the room.
Turning to her, it took all the strength I had to not strangle the life out her.
“Okay, that’s our cue to leave,” Coraline wrapped her arm around her mother-in-law and lifted her out of the chair as if she were some old woman.
“And we’re supposed to just leave her in here? She has no idea how to raise him…or what he likes…”
“When he wakes up, I need to play the ambient sounds of the ocean.” I pointed to the mp3 in the corner. “When you change him, you only give him a bit of powder because it makes him sneeze. He likes applesauce instead of milk when he wakes up, and if it’s quiet for long enough, he will fall back to sleep before finishing the cup.”
Her mouth dropped open, as did Coraline’s. Her eyes squinted together for a moment.
“Mel, how did you—”
“Just because I haven’t been here doesn’t mean I haven’t seen what I need to,” I whispered, as I took off my suit jacket and placed it onto the changing table.
“But Declan said you haven’t checked into any of the cameras,” Coraline replied.
“That he knows of. Next time, tell him to make his virtual footprint smaller.”
Her face went blank and she clearly didn’t understand the term, but I knew that Declan would. Evelyn didn’t say anything and simply left. But I had a feeling she would be back.
Coraline kissed Ethan before walking to the door. “Goodnight to you both.”
I just nodded. When the door closed, I pulled both of my guns from my bag next to the changing table. I placed one behind the dresser and walked back over to Ethan. For the first time in months, we were both alone and I felt like I could breathe again. He was alive and happy and beautiful.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” I whispered down to him as I kissed his head. “I’m so sorry. I won’t leave ever again, I promise.”
Not wanting to wake him, I wiped my eyes before I sat down next to the window. I glanced outside, but all I could see were trees.
We’re going to need sensor lights back there, and I was going to need body heat indicators around the whole house. There had already been one attack on our house and it could never happen again. Part of me was worried that I had triggered something even worse by coming back, but I didn’t have a choice.
Pulling off my heels, I tucked them to the side of me before I crawled into a small ball by the window. The safety was on my gun as I held it against my side. Through the gaps of wooden crib, I could see his chest rise and fall…proof that he was alive and well. It felt like I had only closed my eyes to blink, however the moment I heard the floorboard creek, I was on my feet with my finger on the trigger.
Liam’s green eyes were wide as he stared down the barrel of my gun before he relaxed. Glaring at me, he stepped forward.
“You can’t be fucking serious, Melody.”
It took me a moment to adjust. Backing away from him, my hand shaking slightly, I sat back near the window.
Breathe, Mel.