Chapter 36
SHADE
I have always had an unnatural ability to keep my cool.
Egg my place? I’m going to turn away from the mess and count to twenty before cleaning it up. Insult my family? We’re pushing the bounds of my patience, but I can give someone another chance to correct themselves before I get really pissed off.
Out of everything I could have expected to trigger me to the point of experiencing a hot flash and a tinted red gaze, seeing Millie’s father standing on the sidewalk outside of the studio wasn’t it.
Rage like I’ve never known transforms me into a version of myself that I’ve never seen before.
“They’re not leaving,” Bryce says, following after me as I move through the studio.
“They will.”
“Is that Millie’s—”
I cut her off, my chest heaving like I’m a fucking bull ready to buck my rider off. “If I had to guess, yeah.”
I’d bet everything I own on nobody having ever driven through this town in a Rolls-Royce before right this moment.
Someone sane wouldn’t risk bringing it here and having it stolen unless they didn’t plan on staying long enough for that to happen.
And the old prick standing against the passenger door, wearing a perfectly tailored suit with cufflinks that shimmer in the sun?
He doesn’t appear to be staying longer than he thinks it’ll take to get what he came here for.
My throat tightens to the point of pain. I clench my fists and stare at him through the window, trying desperately to get myself together enough that I can go outside and speak with him without winding up in jail.
“There’s someone else here with him too. He went into Maggie’s.”
“You’re fucking kidding me,” I say bitterly, scrubbing a hand down my face.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought too. Does Millie know? I can go upstairs and tell her.”
I shake my head, dropping my hand. “Don’t bother.”
“You want her to come down?” Bryce asks slowly, confused.
“She was beside me when you called.”
A pause as my best friend soaks that in. When she starts blinking, I nearly laugh.
“Beside you . . . as in . . . beside you?”
“She was in my goddamn bed, Bryce. And she’s too stubborn to stay upstairs for long, so I need to go out and talk to this guy before—”
I cut myself off, unable to admit it out loud.
“Millie isn’t going to go home with those fuckers,” she declares, more confident than I am.
“I’m going outside. If you see me close to doing something that’s going to get me hauled away in a cop car, please intervene.”
“How about you just don’t do anything stupid? Men like that don’t play fair, Shade. Trust me.”
The warning falls on deaf ears once I turn for the door. I keep my spine straight as I shove it open and join the man on the sidewalk, ignoring the bitter chill of the morning on my bare arms.
Who I assume to be Millie’s father regards me with a blank, emotionless expression that I’m sure as shit not going to fall for. It’s all a facade. I know for a fact he’s planning at least ten different ways to make me disappear before I so much as open my mouth.
A man like that doesn’t look at me and see a worthy opponent. He sees a man so far below him that it’s a wonder I don’t automatically bow at his feet.
“Are you the owner of this place?” he asks, voice cold and detached.
“That depends on who’s asking.”
“Sterling Harrington.”
I eye the hands tucked into the pockets of his slacks and swallow a laugh when he doesn’t pull one free to offer it to me. Making a show of crossing my arms, I arch a brow.
“And why are you here asking, Sterling?”
His eyes are so similar in colour to Millie’s, but instead of warm, they’re blizzard cold. “You’re harbouring someone who doesn’t belong to you.”
“I don’t know who you mean,” I state, glancing past him at the door to Maggie’s.
Sterling turns long enough to stare at where Millie’s car has been parked along the curb for the past couple of weeks. I’ve moved it a few times so the RCMP don’t tag it when they do their routine sweeps through town, but other than that, it hasn’t moved.
“Stop playing coy.”
I narrow my eyes. “You’re going to have to be more specific, then. I expected someone with your business experience to at least know when to be straightforward.”
“Alright.” He clears his throat. Pulling his right hand from his pocket, he points lazily at Millie’s car.
“That belongs to my daughter. Now, unless she spent the night at the fire station or the shop down the street, I can only expect that she’s somewhere in the business behind you.
I would like if you went inside and got her for me. ”
I hum lowly, pretending to think it over before grinding out a single word. “No.”
“No?”
“That’s right. I’d appreciate it if you left now.” I take a step back toward the door, wanting to be done with this before it gets a hell of a lot more complicated.
The muscles in Sterling’s jaw twitch when he tracks my movements. “If you don’t go get her for me, I’ll do it myself.”
“Like fucking hell you will,” I spit, my patience fraying. “You so much as touch the door to my studio and I’ll break your hand.”
“Threatening me isn’t wise.”
I do laugh this time. It’s dark, vibrating with the anger that I’m trapping down. The thought of letting Millie leave with this guy—of losing her already—is enough to have me so far out of my body I’m not sure how I’ll get back inside of it.
“The only threat here is you. She’s here for a reason, and it isn’t because I’ve stolen her away from the life she had with you.”
Past his shoulder, the diner door swings open.
My nails dig into my forearms when I spot the man stepping outside. I don’t need verbal confirmation as to who he is. One look at his blond combover and teal-coloured golf shirt, and I know exactly who the man Sterling brought with him today is. Who he is to Millie.
My patience is so close to snapping, I should go inside before it’s too late.
“Mr. Harrington? Why haven’t we gone in yet? She wasn’t at the diner. Although I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s rather filthy.”
I stay right where I am, fleeing no longer an option.
When Chadwick reaches Sterling, he glances at me, blinking a few times. The slight curl of his lip as he runs a judgmental gaze down my body doesn’t exactly help my desire to decorate the street with his white teeth.
“Are you the owner?” he asks me, much more open with his emotions than Millie’s father.
I can hear every vibration of disgust in his voice.
“Is your name really Chadwick, or is that just a joke? A playground tease that just stuck?” I ask with a fake sense of calm.
He glares at me then, brown eyes deepening. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t fall into his games, Chadwick. Millicent is inside, and we need to get her,” Sterling chastises.
“Millicent?” I ask, stumbling slightly.
Her father simply stares at me in genuine shock. “Did you think Millie was her full name?”
“It is to me.”
He scoffs under his breath, and then his features smooth out. His attention drifts behind me to the window. My entire body tenses when I twist as much as I can manage and find Millie at the door. She pushes it open quickly, rushing outside before coming to a sudden stop.
“Millicent,” her father snaps, his cool expression twisting into annoyance in the blink of an eye. “How could you do this? Are you living here?”
The lash of his words hits the mark. In one moment, all of the work she’s put into herself these last few months crumbles.
I lurch toward her, making myself a shield between her and the two men who had her running here in the first place.
Softly, I grasp her shoulders and rub my palms down her arms.
She stares at me, her eyes wide and so unbelievably sad. Her hands rise between us before settling against my chest.
“Don’t let him do this to you,” I murmur, keeping the words soft, just for her. “He doesn’t have a say anymore.”
“Millie—who is this man?”
Chadwick’s voice bounces off my back, and I exhale through my nose. Millie taps my chest over the fresh tattoo she gave me before dropping her hands. The smile she gives me isn’t real. It’s the same plastic one she wears when she feels like she can’t be herself. The sight of it twists my stomach.
She moves from my hold, and I let her go, refusing to trap her like everyone else has done.
“How are you here?” she asks the men.
Her father looks at her then. Really looks, as if he’s seeing her for the first time. She may have dressed in her usual armour—a pink dress with her high heels—but that’s the only thing about her that’s stayed the same all these weeks.
There’s a natural glow to her cheeks now, and her hair is longer, the ends split slightly. She’s lost the tights she used to make herself wear beneath her skirts and dresses, and only a blind man would miss the crown on her wrist as she lifts her hand and tucks her hair behind her ear.
All of these small changes that I’ve noticed . . . ones I know Chadwick never would have.
My hands hang at my sides as I watch her stand in front of both of these men, knowing I can’t choose anything for her. As sour as it tastes to hold my refusals in, I refuse to be another person in Millie’s life who forces her to do something or uses a bribe like an apprenticeship to keep her.
If she wants to stay, she’ll decide that on her own.
“Your car,” her father says, tearing his gaze from her tattoo. “It has a tag for safety reasons. We simply followed it to this . . . town.”
I trap a growl in my throat, two seconds away from going to tear the car apart until I’ve found the tag they’ve put inside of it.
“I should have guessed that,” Millie says, sounding completely unsurprised by that.
“Yes, you should have. But it doesn’t matter.
You had more than enough time to throw your little tantrum.
It’s time to go back home. We can still salvage what happened at the wedding once we get you home.
A full ceremony isn’t even necessary anymore.
You can get married at the house if you’re too scared to stand in front of a crowd again.
As long as there are photos to share, it won’t matter. ”
Chadwick wastes no time joining in. “Put this back on, Millie. I can’t believe you didn’t bring it with you in the first place.”
The sparkle of an engagement ring shakes the ground beneath my feet. It’s a showpiece, the diamond so big it has to hurt to wear for all hours of the day. I can’t comprehend how much it must have cost.
“Your mother has been going out of her mind while you’ve been out here, doing God knows what with God knows who and risking the family name.
We don’t have more time to stand here talking about this.
The plane leaves soon. We need to get on the road,” her father demands, already moving toward the car. “Come. You’re finished here.”
“I haven’t even packed my things,” she croaks, standing frozen.
Unable to stop myself, I inch toward her, needing to help her. Soothe her.
“What things? You don’t need to take whatever you’ve collected from this place. Leave it all,” Chadwick says, stretching his hand out for her to take.
I can feel the panic ringing inside of her. The tremble in her hands cuts me from the stomach up to my throat.
Say it, Shade. Tell her to stay with you.
She looks up at me now, seeking the same words I’m repeating in my mind. The hope shining there is cruel. It’s a fucking joke from the universe. A punishment for the number of times I’ve told it to kiss my ass.
We stand like this for what feels like ever, her begging me with her eyes to tell her to stay, while I grow angrier with myself for my inability to do it. But fuck, can’t she choose to stay on her own?
After all this time watching her grow more confident in herself and find the person that had been suppressed her entire life, I want her to look at Sterling and tell him to go back without her. That she’s happy here and thinks she could stay that way forever.
But she doesn’t.
Her bottom lip quivers when she looks away from me and goes to her father. It’s confirmation of the biggest fear I had when it came to this woman.
Oak Point was supposed to be a place for her to stay just long enough to catch her breath. It was never supposed to be her home. Not even if I wanted it to be.