Wicked Son (Montgomery Heirs #1)

Prologue

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“Y ou look handsome today.”

My wife strides into my office and gently closes the door behind her as she makes her way toward my desk. She’s wearing her favorite red dress today, the one that hangs just off of her shoulders and pinches itself together with a bow at her side.

I pull off my glasses and set them on top of the desk as I stand to greet her with a smile and a warm embrace, brushing her thick blonde hair behind her ear as she melts into my body.

“I just finalized a two-year-long case,” I tell her, “I should be glowing. ”

The only response that she offers is that of a deep inhale as she breathes in the smell of the cologne stuck to my shirt. I spritzed on a little more of it today than I usually do because I knew that she was coming to the office.

With my hand resting low on her back, I guide her to the soft leather armchair at the front of my desk, and I wait until she takes her seat before moving to the other side to drop into my own, pulling my glasses back into place.

“Are you ready?” My eyes meet hers across the desk, and my heart aches as I watch tears line her eyes when I place the stack of papers in front of her.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she answers.

I reach across the desk to take hold of her wrist as she signs her name on page after page in each of the indicated spaces, stroking a thumb gently along her skin.

“This isn’t a bad thing, Apes,” I tell her.

“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt,” she sniffs.

“I know.”

The room grows painfully silent around us as she slides the papers across the desk and back to me. Offering April a warm smile, I pull my favorite pen from the stand on my desk and press it to the papers, flipping through to scribble my own signature wherever it’s required until the stack is complete. April lets out a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh as I stuff the papers into a manila envelope.

“So that’s it then,” she says, “we’re divorced?”

“Almost,” I answer, handing her the box of tissues from my desk. “A judge will sign off on it and— yes, Apes. We’re divorced.”

Pulling one of the tissues toward herself, she dabs at her eyes and lets out that same sound again. She’s trying to laugh at herself; she always has any time that she’s had an emotion other than joy. April is a bright light and she doesn’t like people to see it dimmed – even me, even after all this time. Even when I know that her heart is breaking.

“Can I have one for the road?”

Standing from my desk, I move to the opposite side to meet her with open arms. She presses herself to my body and I envelop her, wrapping my arms tightly around her body as she snakes hers around my waist. I bring a hand up to stroke my thumb soothingly across her cheek and I press a kiss to the top of her head, giving myself permission to breathe in the bright grapefruit fragrance from her perfume.

Today is a special occasion.

“You’ve done very well today, little one,” I tell her, keeping my voice low and calming. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Thank you, Sir,” she answers with a sniff. Putting my hand on either side of her face, I force her to look at me and I press a kiss to her lips. “I know I can’t— I know you’ll have to eventually, but don’t find another one right away, okay?”

“I don’t want another one,” I tell her.

I’m not trying to pacify her when I tell her that. I really don’t want to find another.

This is it for me.

April was the best submissive I’ve ever had. It isn’t her fault that my baselines became her hard limits. None of the rest of it is her fault, either. It isn’t anyone’s, and maybe that’s why this is so much more painful than either of us had anticipated.

If there’s no blame to be placed, it means that this was unavoidable. We were always going to wind up here.

We were both going to need freedom eventually.

I shouldn’t, and I know that, but I force April to keep her eyes on mine as I issue her one final series of orders.

“I’m going to give you a few minutes,” I tell her. “I want you to sit down, drink some water and let your adrenaline come down. Then I want you to get in your car and go straight to your sister’s house and stay the night there so you aren’t alone. You can do that for me, can’t you?”

“Yes, Sir,” she nods.

“You’ve always been such a good listener,” I tell her with a proud smile.

“You’ll keep me updated on your scans, right?” She asks. “I can’t leave if you don’t promise me that.”

“Then I promise.”

After bringing her a bottle of water from the mini fridge tucked into the corner of my office, I reach behind her neck to unclasp the thin chain wrapped around it. It’s a simple piece that ends in a hoop at the front, bordered on either side by a pair of wings.

For as lightweight as the collar is, it feels heavy in my hand as I rest it on her lap with one final kiss to her head.

I hear April cry as I close the door behind me, and it takes all of my strength to let go of my years of tending to her.

“Can you go in there with her, please?” I ask my secretary, who nods before knocking on the door and letting herself into the room.

Taking a moment to collect myself, I pull off my wedding ring along with the woven leather bracelet which has been wrapped around my left wrist since I first collared April. Leaving my skin bare feels wrong and leaves me feeling exposed, but I also know that we’ll both be all the better for this once we leave here.

It was time.

As I stuff the two items into my pocket, my colleague approaches with a clap to my shoulder. “First night single,” he says. “Happy hour with the guys?”

“I can’t drink,” I answer with a shake of my head. “I’m going to go to a hotel and read a good book, and then I’m going to sleep.”