Page 61

Marcus Cole stood before me. He was a handsome older man who always dressed nicely and took great care of his body in order to stay fit. I thought he worked out so much before to help balance him out because he had kept himself and his magic separated for so long.

This was a man I had respected, possibly even loved at one point in time, and he still meant a great deal to me even though I was so upset with him.

He’d changed though, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint exactly when that change had taken place.

Had it been when Vivian had died?

Had it been when I’d moved out or when his brother died?

Had it been Rain permanently coming back into my life that set something off in him?

The list went on and on, and it could have been a great many things that started the change. Whatever it was, I was fairly certain it didn’t even really matter at this point, because there was no taking it back.

He’d gotten shady, and then with that thing in the pool, he’d finally turned creepy.

Out of the two of us, he was the one who really seemed to be fitting into his role as a Council member far better than I ever could, that was for damn sure.

“Ariel, I need you to come with me. It’s too dangerous for you here now.”

Was it too dangerous here for me now because he was here, standing so close to me?

“Why are you here, Marcus? Quinton has been looking for you for a while now, but you’ve been hiding. Why is that?” I asked suspiciously.

I failed to mention it was more than just Quinton who’d been looking for him. He was a smart man, so I was sure I didn’t need to tell him any of that. I was certain he had a way of watching us. Maybe he even had cameras set up around the outside of his house. At this point, I would put nothing past him.

When you stopped believing in the best of someone, you opened your eyes to the worst of what they were capable of. It made me feel like I should just go into every relationship thinking there was nothing good in any person, and then I’d never find myself disappointed when they proved me right.

It felt like Tyson had been gone for far too long. He should have been back by now. Or someone should have shown up. Something had to be wrong at the house, and that thought made me want to sayfuck thisand run right back there to make sure they were all alright, but I refused to run away from this man.

If I ran away from him, would I ever have a chance to confront him again? Would I ever get another chance to look him in the face and ask him why?

“You don’t belong here anymore,” he said as he reached out to grab my arm. I shook off his hold and sidestepped out of his reach.

What the hell did that mean? If I didn’t belong here, then where else was I supposed to go?

“Do not touch me,” I hissed at him. “What makes you think you have the right to put your hands on me in any way whatsoever? You’ve changed, Marcus, and I don’t much care for the difference in you.”

He sneered at me, and something inside my chest shattered and broke. He’d never looked at me in such a horrible way before, and I hated it. What had I ever done to him to make him look at me in such a way?

“You don’t like my behavior?” He laughed humorlessly. “How about the difference in you? You went from being this sweet, innocent girl to this wild whore who’s now fucking that brat, Quinton, out in the open for anyone and everyone to see. It’s like you’ve lost all shame and become exactly like your mother. And don’t even get me started on your behavior toward your bodyguards. How long have you been fucking them too?”

Wow, I couldn’t believe he’d really gone there.

I hadn’t worried about being slut shamed due to my relationships in a very long time, and I’d never once expected it to come from him of all people.

Though, stupidly, the only words I could get out were, “Vivian was not my mother. You know this.”

It felt so wrong to allow anyone to get away with calling her my mother. It was disrespectful to my actual mother. I wasn’t even comfortable calling Vivian my aunt, which, by blood, she actually was.

“Could have fooled me. You two turned out to be one and the same. For someone who claims Vivian wasn’t their mother, you sure act just like her. Like mother like daughter.”

How could he say these horrible, hateful words to me? Did he not know me at all?

I thought I was going to be sick, but somehow I managed to choke down the bile rising up my throat.

I absolutely refused to shed even one single tear, though I wanted to cry an entire river. I would not. I had cried far too many tears as of late. I refused to shed any more. Certainly not in front of this man who was speaking such vile words about me and saying them right to my face.

“What’s happened to you, Marcus?” I whispered in a choked voice. I pressed my palm flat over my chest, my heart attempting to race right out of it. “You used to be such a nice, kind man. I miss that man. I want him back.”