“What?” Lucas asks, and that makes her smile. But it's wicked.
“That I get to kill her.”
“Done,” Lucas answers, and I know he’s lying, but she doesn’t need to know that.
THREE
ADORA
Small hands grab my legs, and I smile at their feel.
“Why do you look sad?” Eyes the exact same color as mine stare up at me. My father’s genes are strong. “Aren’t you happy to be back?”
I reach down and lift him into my arms. How can something so perfect belong to me? I missed so much and tried to tell myself it was for the right reasons. But now I know I can’t. I know I could never leave him again. No matter what. Two years without him was harder than I could have ever imagined.
The price we pay for love.
“I’m not sad. I’m so, so happy. What do you want to do today?” I ask him as Scott walks in. His eyes find mine, then he glances at our son and then to my finger, where he made sure I put his ring back on. It wasn’t a request.
He won’t let me sleep in the same bed as him. He knows I like to cut people’s throats when they sleep like I did to my father.
I wouldn’t trust me either.
I would do it again if I knew I could get away with it like I did last time.
That night, when Scott showed up, I received a text, went outside, and there he was waiting for me.
“Told you I would find you.” He did, and I always thought he would. But I figured if I stayed in plain sight, both men who wanted me wouldn’t find me. How wrong I was.
And I had also hoped Scott wouldn’t be stupid enough to go against the Rossi’s. That’s like signing your own death warrant, which I did when I left Joey for Scott.
“You look beautiful.”
I hate him.
Loathehim.
I don’t answer.
I know I look beautiful. It’s because he requests I wear what’s in my closet and nothing else. I place Jerome on my lap and pick up his headphones and position them on his ears before I press play on what he’s watching.
“Do you plan to speak?”
“I hate you,” I tell him, voicing the most prominent thought cycling through my mind right at this moment.
“You don’t have to love me for me to fuck you, Adora. You know this.”
“I’m sure you didn’t go without while I was gone,” I reply.
The nanny walks in and smiles as she reaches for my son.
“No, the help knows how to suck cock.”
The nanny’s eyes go wide as she looks at me, not in shock at what he said but… with guilt.
“You’re fired,” I tell her simply. She stands up straight, eyes wide, and looks back to Scott, who shrugs before he stalks off.
“Miss, I—” she begins to plead, but I cut her off.