Chapter 47 ALEX
I DESCENDED THE STAIRCASE to the sound of the gate bell and found Mimi’s tear-streaked face swaying on the camera monitor. I hesitated, but only for a second, before hitting Open.
“Dear heart,” she pleaded, clearly intoxicated as she stumbled across the driveway with a pitiful smile, one spaghetti strap from her silk chemise falling off her shoulder.
I remained still, a deadly brew of anger, protectiveness, and alcohol pumping through my veins.
Mimi held out her arms, mascara running from keen eyes that were fixed on me with longing.
She hadn’t even had the sense to brush the white powder from her nostrils.
In a flash of rage, I grabbed her forearms and pinned her against the porch.
Mimi stuttered my name in shock, then clocked my eyes.
“You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”
“Alex, please. It’s all been a horrible mistake.”
“We had a deal, you selfish bitch, but you still couldn’t resist trying to take more from me.
” I moved into her face, the smell of alcohol on my breath causing her to shudder.
“I know you’ve pulled this shit before, but with Nancy, you really went to town.
Paying off my cousins to harass her then showing off a fake ring, for fuck’s sake! ”
“It was for us. We were always meant to marry. The others were just a distraction.”
“You thought you could bully me into the position you wanted? You viper of a woman!” My hands travelled up to her neck.
“I loathe you and everything your greedy little family stands for. You’re a classless nobody.
Like one of those life-size cardboard cutouts that gets thrown in the trash with the stale popcorn.
You’re a fake and a leech. You don’t deserve to breathe the same air as Nancy. She’s everything you could never be.”
Dyed black tears rolled down Mimi’s cheeks. “Alex, please. We’ve known each other forever. I was made for you. I love yo—”
“You don’t know the meaning of those words!” I roared, the brute inside feeling a wretched pleasure from the adrenaline now pumping in the mix. Mimi cowered. “If you ever go near Nancy again, I’ll end you. Do you understand?”
“Alex?” Nancy called out.
I whipped around in a haze as she stumbled into the hall, looking distraught. Her cheeks glistened with tears, and the front of her dress was covered in sick. Sobering, I released Mimi without a glance and moved towards Nancy as if pulled.
“Upstart tramp! You stole everything from me!” Mimi lunged, predatory, but Evan was quicker. He clutched her arm before she could cross the threshold and yanked her back. Mimi crumpled at his feet, sobbing.
I spun, raising a hand in fury, but Evan gripped my throat, instantly incapacitating me. “Hold it there, boyo. You’re not your father. Now look behind you. Ms Cooper needs you.”
I blinked in shock that he’d put a hand on me, then, in my bleary state, I saw the scene for what it was. A terrible echo.
“Stay with me.” Nancy pawed my back.
I knelt and pulled her close, absorbing her pain and sharing my own. “Get her home, Evan.”
“It’s done, Lord Toverton,” he replied stoically, closing the front door behind him.