Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
“SILENCE” BY MARSHMELLO, KHALID
ANATOLE
The house is loud as we make our way to the kitchen after all of us showered and we cleaned the mess that Blossom made of us this morning. No fucking complaints here, I’m hoping I get to clean that up for years. For the rest of my life if I’m being honest.
We come into the kitchen to the usual Saturday morning carnage, and Steele guides Blossom to a seat while Nox and I take over some of the tasks she’d usually do. Pouring juice, spreading toppings on pancakes that Tina is flipping on the stove.
My heart feels more full than it has in, well, ever. This is what family is. What it feels like. Jam and juice and noise on a Saturday morning.
I catch Jus’s gaze, and he narrows it slightly, then looks at Blossom, then turns back to me with the biggest shit eating grin on his face.
Don’t fucking say it, I think as I deliver a plate to Blossom, unable to resist placing a kiss on her temple.
Jus’s eyes go wide. “You fucked her?!”
SMACK.
My hand connects with the back of his head, not hard, but correcting, as there are little fucking kids at the table.
“Watch how you speak about her, Jus. And mind your mouth around the little ones.”
The shit just grins, rubbing the back of his head and I go to take my seat next in between him and Bloom. “You definitely ‘bumped uglies’ with her.” He air quotes bumped uglies, then takes off running when I lunge at him, laughing like a fucking lunatic.
I give chase, but he’s small and fast and soon all the kids are cheering while I’m laughing along with him.
“Little shit,” I murmur, shaking my head and taking my seat as he dances away singing that stupid kissing song again.
Tina bustles over, handing Blossom a mug of her favorite tea.
“You’re glowing this morning, dearie.”
Blossom blushes beautifully, and I take a sip of my black coffee to hide my smirk.
“Tina, I—”
“A good man will do that to a woman. Three good men? Well.” Then she leaves, poor Bloom mouth open, while I try not to laugh.
There’s also something hot in my chest, something growing at the fact Tina called us good men, despite our background. Despite how we look or that before we came here we had fucking nothing to our names apart from a shitty studio apartment.
“Ant?” Jus’s voice breaks me from my thoughts, and I glance over at him, finding his lower lip sucked in. My brows dip.
“Yeah?”
“Are we staying forever now?”
There’s so much goddamn hope in his eyes that I can’t breathe for a second. How did I ever imagine taking him away from this? Leaving all this behind?
“Yeah, bro. We’re staying.”
We’re just cleaning up after everyone has finished when the sound of the front door opening makes Blossom’s head snap up and my heart fucking stutter in my chest.
Steele moves closer to Blossom as we hear clipped footsteps come down the hall, but our woman has gone white as a ghost.
In walks her father, Wilson Devonshire, not that the asshole bothered to introduce himself last night. He takes in the scene, the kids laughing unaware of the monster that just walked in, and his face twists with contempt.
“So this is what you've done with your mother's house,” he states with a sneer, and I stand taller, bracing myself. “Turned it into a halfway house for castaways and criminals. And now you're fucking the strays too?”
My teeth grind and anger fills my veins. There’s a sharp intake of breath round us, one of the kids whimpering. I don’t take my eyes off the snake, but see how Jus puts his arm around Noah.
“Do not use that kind of language in front of the children.” Her voice is tight, controlled and so angry pride swells in my chest. She may not defend herself, but woe fucking betide anyone threatens her kids. Our family. She turns to Tina. “Please take everyone outside in the garden.”
Tina glares at Wilson, and I would applaud her if the room wasn’t so full of tension. “Come on, my loves, Let’s go see if the tomatoes are ready.”
She starts herding the kids out, but Jus looks back at me, face creased with worry. I give him a nod. Go.
Turning back, I see that Steele is still beside Blossom, Nox at her back and I take steps so that I’m closer, crossing my arms and staring at her cunt of a father. We are united and won’t let her face him alone.
“I want them out.” His finger comes up and points at us. “This is completely inappropriate. You're supposed to be providing a safe home for children, not running some kind of... commune.”
“This is my house,” Blossom answers, voice shaky but firm and I’m so fucking proud of her. “Mother left it to me. You have no say in who stays here.” She takes a deep inhale. “And these men are perfectly safe.”
His upper lip curls. “Your mother. Always your mother. She poisoned you against me before she even died, useless whore.”
I feel the stuttered inhale Blossom takes. “It's not my fault she died. It's not my fault she left everything to me instead of you. I didn't ask for any of it — I just wanted a father who could look at me without hating what he saw!”
Her words are greeted with silence, and my heart fractures for her. She’s lived her entire life with a father who can’t stand her, or her mother apparently.
“You’re just like her,” he says, but it lands like an insult.
“Always giving money away when it would be better invested. Always helping those beneath us.” His gaze falls on us standing with her, and he lifts his nose in the air.
“But just like her, you can’t help yourself, always so desperate for any scrap of attention.
It’s pathetic.” I step forward, but Nox’s hand grips my upper arm.
“She never should have left you her fortune. It was mine by rights, and I wouldn’t have wasted it like you do. ”
Greedy fucking asshole. He’s treated her like shit, for what? The money her mother left her? He clearly has enough given his designer chinos and tailored linen shirt. My hands clench into fists.
“You think you're so independent? So righteous? You're playing house with criminals, Blossom. What do you think will happen when the authorities find out about your little arrangement?” His gaze is calculated, like a snake about to strike.
“We haven’t done anything wrong,” I grit out, and that gaze so unlike Blossom’s snaps to me.
One side of his lips twitches upwards. “You really think that matters? I have friends. In the police department, in social services, in family court. One phone call and this whole house of cards comes tumbling down.”
My stomach drops.
“You would hurt innocent children, innocent people, just to get back at me? You hate me that much?” Blossom’s voice is broken, and I fucking loathe the man more for it.
He turns his glare onto her. “I would protect those poor children from your lack of judgment. Get rid of these men or I'll do it for you.”
With that parting threat, he turns on his polished heel and strides away, confident in that way that rich fucks are.
Blossom makes a noise, a small, shattered noice that has me spinning to her as her knees give out. Steele catches her, sitting down in a chair and pulling her shaking body into his lap. We surround them, but I just don’t know how to make her feel better.
“He’s bluffing, Petal. He can’t just—”
“He’s not bluffing, Nox,” Blossom interrupts, her voice empty, her face far too pale. “He could make something up, have you arrested for... I don't know, fraud, trespassing, something. He could call CPS and say I'm running an unsafe home. He could—”
She cuts off, her shoulders drawing up to her ears. She takes a deep, pained breath, her eyes closing as a single tear falling down her cheek.
“This isn’t your fault, Flower,” Steele says gently, holding her close to him, and my chest tightens when she opens her beautiful hazel eyes that are red rimmed and lifeless.
“He's my father.” Her voice is thick, choked sounding. “If he hurts you, it IS my fault. Maybe... maybe you should go. Just for a while. Until I can figure out—"
I crouch in front of her, cup her trembling cheek. “No, baby. We’re not running. We’re not leaving you, and we’re not letting that bastard win.”
The words I speak are true, but I can’t hide the bile in my throat as I speak them, or the way my muscles feel coiled tight.
Wilson Devonshire has power that we don’t. Connections we don’t. And I’ve no doubt he will use it all to separate us.
The rest of the day passes in a tense blur, all of us trying to pretend everything is okay when it’s really fucking not.
Steele keeps positioning himself near the windows looking out over the drive.
Nox is quieter than I’ve seen him since we were kids, watching the front door whenever we’re near it.
But it’s Blossom I’m worried about. She’s gone back to that place we found her last night when she came home.
Cooking more than is needed, crafting with the children with a false cheeriness that hurts my fucking soul.
She shouldn’t have to deal with this, and I exchange more than one worried look with my brothers.
Jus knows something is up, he always was too observant, but then again, life so far has taught him to stay on his toes. He asks questions about Wilson, seeking reassurance that we are still staying.
Just the thought of Blossom’s father makes my molars ache. I will not leave her. We will keep our promise to stay, to be part of this chaotic family. But Wilson Devonshire strikes me as a man who delivers on his threats.
The day passes, and soon we’re setting the table for family dinner, the kids helping and then taking their seats. Tina places an enormous bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese in the middle of the table, the rich tomato sauce making my stomach growl.
I catch Blossom’s eye, and she gives me a small smile that feels like the first genuine smile I’ve got all day from her. My own lips tip up, and it’s as if it’s the first time either of us has exhaled all day.
Jus nudges me, saying something stupid that has me huffing a laugh when a loud booming knock on the front door resounds through the house.