I’m unprepared for the indignation that bombards me. It’s swift and righteous.
Finally.
I’ve been the subject of false accusations before and now that I’ve been vindicated, even if it came at a steep cost, I feel almost…powerful. Too powerful to let this man continue touching me. I don’t care how broken he looks now that I’ve proven myself to be honest.
Tears crowd tightly behind my eyes and I yank my wrist free, bounding out of the bed.
“Come back here, angel,” Edison begs raggedly, cradling his bloody finger to his chest like a prized possession. “Please lie back down and let this bastard beg for forgiveness.”
“I never want to see you again,” I sniff, pulling up my panties and running out of the room. A man with a doctor’s bag walks side by side with a man in spectacles. They regard me knowingly, obviously making assumptions about what I did with Edison in that bedroom.
“Blessing!” Edison roars in the doorway behind me, while jerking his pants up and engaging the zipper. “Do not leave this house. You live here now. You live with me.”
“Never,” I say, trying to pass by the two men in my path.
“Don’t let her by,” Edison commands, beginning to storm toward me. “But so help me God, if either of you lays a finger on her, I will snap them off one by one.”
He’s going to catch me.
The unholy fire in his eyes says he’s never going to let me go.
If I’m being honest with myself, there is a part of me that wants back into his arms, to surround myself once again in all that warmth and protectiveness. But the betrayal, the fresh accusations, the test of my innocence are too fresh.
Thinking fast, I kick the spectacled man in the shin. “Sorry,” I squeak when he doubles over. And I vault past him, sprinting at top speed down the hallway. On my way out the door, I pick up the hat full of money, wrap my arms around it protectively and exit the mansion as fast as my legs will carry me. Into the cold.
When I glance back once, I see the women from the church watching me leave from the windows. They are the ones who told Edison lies about me. Will one of them be his bride?
I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t give it another thought, so why does the possibility of Edison marrying another cause tears to burst from my eyes? There is no time to examine my complicated emotions now. I turn and continue to run determinedly into the night, resigning myself to the fact that I’ll never see Edison again in my life.
Although his anguished roar of my name from the doorstep of his home does cause me to wonder if I’m wrong…
Chapter Three
Edison
There is no word to describe my rage.
I have done this. In the space of an hour, I have found and lost the greatest treasure of my life. How? How did this happen?
Blessing vanishes into the night and the world crumbles around me. She has ripped out my soul and drags it behind her now through the snow. I am empty. And I am boiling. I will find her. Blessing will become my wife or time and space will cease to have meaning.
Cold air blasts me in the face, but my misery is too vast and I feel none of it. I can only think of her delicate skin out there without a coat. Without my arms around her. I can feel only her fragile body beneath mine and her earnest pleas to believe the truth. Her truth.
My fists turn into mallets and I bury one of them in the foyer wall, plaster and dust flying everywhere. Gasps and whispers abound around me, but I don’t give a shit.
My ire needs an outlet.
I turn my head and lock eyes with a pale Ben. “Who told you she stole from the church?” When he doesn’t answer right away, I grab him by the lapels of his jacket and shake him. “Who the fuck was it?”
Slowly, without taking his eyes off mine, he points to a group of women.
Three of them. Huddled together with matching expressions of dread.
“You vipers will get the fuck out of my house. All of you will.” I let my assistant drop into a heap and approach the women in measured steps. “But if you tell me where to find Blessing, I might decide not to evict each of you from your homes. Of which I am the landlord, if you’ll recall. I own most of the property in this town, but you already knew that.” My temples are ringing with irritation. Denial. Worry. Where is Blessing? “That’s why you’re here angling for a proposal.”
One of them gasps. “You wouldn’t evict us. At Christmastime?”
“You’ve deprived me of my angel. I didn’t even have a chance to feed her. Watch me.”