Chapter 27
27
Three months later…
“ D id he just take your phone?” Jacque whispered from across the drawing room, staring in shock at my husband’s retreating back.
The one he knows about…
“He likes to keep an eye on me,” I said, like it was no big deal that he was currently snooping through my messages, emails, search history, and photos. He’d find nothing but evidence I was the perfect wife, obedient to him in every way.
“I can see that,” she muttered, glancing at Eric, who’d been stationed in the corner throughout her visit.
He was staring at her instead of watching me. In a yellow dress that highlighted her blonde hair and sun-kissed skin, she was the breathtaking picture of carefree youth. Had I ever been that young?
I was only ten years older than her, but it felt like a hundred years separated us even if I was dressed to look just as light and untroubled. King hated it when I wore black, so I was in a pink lacy sundress that matched my light-pink nails and the pink ribbon my stylist had woven into my soft dark curls. My time for black would come.
I wasn’t going to let King’s intrusion spoil the joy of seeing my sister. It might be the last time I saw her if my plan went awry, and I wasn’t going to have her last memories of me be anything but happy ones.
“I’m sorry…is that a jaguar?” she asked incredulously, looking out the window at the cage they were transporting from the vet outbuilding back to the menagerie.
“A leopard. One of Kevin’s pets.” I bugged my eyes at the ridiculousness of it, and she choked back a laugh.
I shuddered anytime I saw the leopard now. It wasn’t the animal’s fault. She was just another trapped creature in Kevin’s menagerie, subject to his brutal whims.
I tore my eyes from the window and focused on my sister. “I’m going to miss you,” I said, choking up and trying to hide it with a beaming smile. “But I’m so excited for you to take this trip.” Three months on a yacht with my aunt and uncle. She’d be far from Kevin’s influence and aboard a ship with a Secret Service detail. I could only light the proverbial fuse if I knew she wouldn’t be collateral damage.
She sighed in that world-weary way only teenagers had perfected, though she’d just left her teen years behind with her most recent birthday, a celebration I’d missed because I’d been late to dinner with Kevin the day before. He was drunk and accidentally left the marks of his displeasure where people would see them. He didn’t let me leave the house until the bruises faded and I was able to take the splint off my wrist.
It had been worth it. I was late for dinner in the first place because I’d taken a secret call with one of his enemies, one of the last things I needed. It was going to be the key to destruction. His or mine. Maybe both. I didn’t fucking care anymore. I couldn’t keep living like this.
“I’m excited for the trip too, but three months is such a long time to be on a boat with family and no one my age.” She huffed.
I smiled gently. “Maybe you’ll meet someone with hot in Australia or Japan. A foreign dignitary’s son…”
She frowned, but I could see the wheels turning in her mind.
“You’ll find ways to have fun.” I laughed.
“Did you?” She glanced at the interloper who wasn’t even pretending not to listen. “Have fun before you got married?”
Reaper flashed through my mind. No matter how I tried to keep the memories of him shut away, they had a habit of spiraling into my thoughts. The way he’d held my wrist and smoked from my cigarette in the boathouse. The way his mouth curved slowly into that wicked smile. The wild abandon of what we’d done in the Kennedy Room and the sight of him tapping on my balcony window later that night. Kissing him. Touching him. Fearing him. Inexplicably trusting him with my life, my body…my heart. Being held in his arms.
I tried to keep my expression neutral, but it was Jacque’s turn to smile. “I see,” she said knowingly.
“There’s something you need to know,” I said quietly, even though Eric could still hear me. “Daddy and I made a deal, and he promised you could pick who you marry, decide what you want to do with your life. It’s been documented. Even if something were to happen to me, that deal holds.”
She looked panicked. “What would happen to you?”
I moved to the couch she was sitting on and took her hands. “Hopefully nothing, but in our family, you never know. Mama made me a similar promise, and Daddy broke it after she was gone. I’ve made sure he can’t do that to you. But I need you to make me a promise as well, sunshine.”
She nodded intently.
“Promise me you’ll pick someone kind. Someone who adores you just as you are.”
If the cycle is broken with you, this will all have been worth it.
“I promise,” she said as a tear streamed down her cheek.
She was young in so many ways but wise beyond her years in others. She knew. Not the specifics of any of it, but she knew I was miserable and that my misery had somehow bought her freedom.
“Thank you,” she said, squeezing my hands. “You can be the maid of honor when I marry an Australian fisherman.”
I laughed, fighting back tears. “Sophia’s not going to appreciate that.”
Brenner and Daddy better protect Sophia and her kids. I’d tried to find a way to shield her more securely from Kevin, but I was pretty sure she was safe.
“She’ll be fine,” Jacque said, like she was reading my mind.
“You should get going,” I said, releasing her hands and standing to walk her out. “Kevin and I are leaving soon, and I know you need to get to the dock.”
We said our good-byes, and I watched her drive away, hoping she’d find the joy for herself that was missing in my life even if I wasn’t there to see it.
I might not have had the traditional kind of happiness, but a grim, exhilarated kind of delight twisted inside me as I turned to go back inside. Jacque was safe, and I’d done everything I could to secure her future.
Time to go and end my marriage.