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It’s nothing too over the top. It reminds me of what I wanted when I was a little girl, cold and hungry in the middle of our trailer, with my daddy’s fists flying into my face.
“You found something?” Bailey asks, rounding the table and looking over my shoulder. “Oh, I love that!”
“Me too,” I whisper, picking up my phone and calling my realtor. “I want it.” I smirk at Bailey.
After letting my realtor know to put an offer in on the house, I make my way to my bedroom, flicking through the contacts on my phone. I hit dial on Madison, even though I know it will go to her voicemail.
Only it doesn’t. “Tills…”
I launch off my bed. “Madison!”
“Shhhh!” she scolds me. “Don’t say that too loud.”
“First of all are you okay?”
“Yes,” she answers somberly.
“Okay good, because what the fuck do you think you’re doing running away like this? Why didn’t you tell me you were going!”
“I—I felt so guilty, Tillie.”
“Madison,” I sigh, my shoulders sagging. “I would have never been mad at you. I understand this stupid world more than you know. I would have understood,” I repeat, my voice softer. “But what I don’t understand is why you ran! Where are you?”
“In New Zealand with Jesse. You can’t tell Bishop!”
“He already knows,” I answer truthfully.
“He does?” Her voice cracks on the end.
“Yeah, and he’s letting you go.”
“Oh,” she answers sadly. “I guess that’s a good thing.”
“No, it’s not. The minute you realize you want to come home, you better come home. Because I want my friend back. I forgive you, it’s all in the past. I never was mad at you in the first place.”
“Oh no,” Madison says. “That was just the beginning of our problems.”
I lick my lips. “Can you give me something more on what happened with asshole?”
Silence. “He threatened to kill me, you, Bishop, Nate, everyone if I didn’t go along with the video to make it look believable. So I took it.” Her voice jolts and I know she’s crying. “My heart, Tillie. Knowing that I was betraying Bishop and I couldn’t do anything about it ripped me apart. I knew that any minute after it was done, Bishop was going to think I cheated.” She sighs. “I don’t know who he was working for or why he raped me. But when he finished, he called someone and told them that the deed was done and now they’d have to wait.”
“God,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry, Madison. I wish I could be there with you right now. I promise I’ll get answers. These assholes will give me answers.”
She chuckles. “You handle them all so much better than I ever did.”
“Mads…” I whisper. “You’re the fucking queen of the pack. You’re Bishop fucking Vincent Hayes’ lady. You underestimate your power.”
“No,” she says softly. “I overestimated it for too long. But I will come back one day.”
“Good. Because I bought a house.”
“You did?” She perks up. “Where?”
“Some fancy neighborhood in the suburbs. White picket fence and all. You’d be proud.”
“I am proud.”
“I need you back in my life,” I sigh. “There’s so much I’ve got to tell you.”
“Well, I’ve got some time now?”
I snuggle into my bed. “Okay, so this bitch Valentina…”
Two weeks later
Tillie
“I love that we’re drinking out of mugs,” Bailey says, sipping red wine. Purchasing and moving was easy. It seems the saying is true; money does talk.
“I know,” I chuckle, looking around my lounge. “I still have to shop for the smaller things. I don’t really drink wine, so it didn’t come to me.”
“Hey so…” Bailey murmurs, running her finger around the rim of her mug. “Have you heard from any of The Kings?”
I shake my head, tucking my legs under my ass. “No. I think they’re all giving me the silent treatment.”
Bailey laughs nervously. “Oh, I have a gift!”
“Oh, Bays, I can’t take another exp—”
She hands me the box with Daemon’s book. My eyes go to hers as I carefully take it from her. “Where’d you get this? I couldn’t find it anywhere.”
Bailey brushes my comment off, swallowing all of her wine in one gulp. “I figured it’s important. You should read it tonight, and think again about coming to Nate’s house warming. It won’t be kicking off until probably after ten.”
I look at the big clock that hangs on my pristine white walls. It’s just after six. I smile, even though I know I won’t be going. No way in hell.
“Thanks. But no. You have fun though!”
She gives me a hug and stands. “Try reading through that tonight. You might feel more insightful or something…” Then she leaves, and I’m left sitting there wondering how she knows about Daemon’s book.
I flip through the pages, my fingers scanning over each image.
Picture after picture. I reach the end, where there’s the baby rattle in the cell. I always thought he was giving me a clue to Micaela, but that was when I thought he was alive.