“Drink this,” Declan’s voice sounded above me.
“I thought I was clear. I don’t want to see your face until you bring our daughter back,” I grumbled, closing my eyes again as I tried not to hurl.
“You were very clear.”
“So why are you still here?”
“Because I enjoy watching my children sleep.”
My eyebrows frowned together. Peeking open one eye, I glanced up to him as he glared down at me, a glass of water in one hand, pills in the other. “Are you making fun of me right now?”
Stone-faced…borderline enraged, he glared down at me. “No. I’m trying to prevent you from puking on our children as they sleep because, like I said, I enjoy watching them like this.”
I heard his words.
I understood them.
And yet it still took much longer than it should have for me to…hope….my heart began to race as I sat up. Feeling a strange weight on the bed, I turned to my left slowly, and there were…there she was…
“Helen?” I gasped, reaching out to touch her face, but she sneezed, rubbing her nose before rolling over and hugging her brother…on Darcy as he snuggled on the pillow. As if I were dreaming, I reached out, running my hands through her curly hair.
“She got here last night after you passed out, and they both wanted to stay with you. Drink,” he said, offering me the water and pills.
I stared at them before looking back to him, and I couldn’t help it. I jumped, ye, jumped out of bed, hugging him, feeling the water in his hand slip a little bit. “You did it! You brought her home—”
“No, I didn’t.” He peeled me off, handing me the glass and putting the medicine on the bedside table. “Wyatt is the reason she’s back.”
“Wyatt?” I asked.
He just nodded, and I followed as he moved out of our bedroom and into the den, heading to his desk chair and grabbing his suit jacket.
“You’re not going to—”
“Yes, Wyatt. He skipped class and flew down to D.C. yesterday, where he broke into Senator Rook’s office, you know the senator Melody handpicked for the Senate. I guess that was the only other senator he knew.”
“I don’t know…what does Senator Rook have to do with this? Helen’s biological father is Senator King—”
“Wyatt kidnapped Rook’s seventeen-year-old daughter,” he interrupted, his face emotionless, “and took her to Senator King’s home, where he proceeded to shoot them both up with over five grams of our uncut heroin, and while they were both overdosing, he stripped them down naked, so they could be found naked and high in bed together.”
I felt my mouth drop and closed it, only to drop it again. My mind was spinning as I tried to piece together the madness that spilled out of his mouth. I replied slowly, “You’re telling me that Wyatt framed Senator King with a minor, not just any minor, but another senator’s daughter, and heroin?”
He sighed, rubbing his forehead as even he could not believe it. “No. Wyatt tried to frame him. Instead, he murdered our daughter’s biological father.
“Senator King is dead?” I whispered.
He nodded. “Apparently, he had a deadly allergic reaction to the drugs. So now everyone wants to know how a highly respected member of the black community who spoke out against drug use ended up dying of drug use in his own house. Senator Rook’s daughter has no idea how she got there either. Helen is temporarily back in our custody. But now I have an appointment with Judge Wilkins, who will probably want to investigate how it is we got Helen back so quickly.”
“I’ll come with you—”
“It’s best if you don’t come in your current state,” he muttered as he walked past me, angry. Reaching out to him, I grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop for a moment. He didn’t look back at me.
I didn’t even know where to begin.
“Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to not be so fucking unless,” he snapped, yanking his arm away from me and marching to the door.
“Declan—”
Pausing, he turned back to me and got in my face to scream, “I love them, too! They’re my children, too…I was in pain, too! I wanted her back, too. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want this circus for her. Her mother overdosed on our drugs. Our business killed her mother. And now we’re responsible for killing her father, too.”