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She nods and her black tresses obscure her face before she tucks them behind her ear. “I can’t prove he did it, but I know he told somebody to handle it. He’d just joined a secret society, and he was feeling invincible. It didn’t matter what I did, it wasn’t enough to outsmart him. I didn’t give up because he was right, I gave up because I was scared for my life.” She wipes a tear on her cheek. “It tookme so long to save up for a PI after I moved back in with my parents. I was so determined to get you back, but I had to find you first.” She shakes her head. “Marcellus didn’t like that.”

“He didn’t like a lot of things,” I mumble, turning away from her. I focus on the sky. The blue. The birds. The clouds. And when calm replaces the beginnings of my panic, I offer her a smile.

“God, I can’t believe how beautiful you are.” She laughs, but those are tears in her eyes. “Howgrownyou are.”

Talking to my mother shouldn’t be this awkward, but I let the silence grow between us.

We continue walking while she tells me Weston’s mother died of natural causes as far as she knows.

She tells me about the surgeries next. The facial reconstruction she needed after escaping my father. The years she spent in therapy trying to get back to herself.

Resentment. Jealousy. I allow myself to feel them both in equal measure. I’m happy she got out but now she has a twenty-six-year head start on her healing.

Heaviness weighs down my legs and I can’t walk another step with her.

“Thank you for telling me,” I say, sincere but reeling.

“Do you have time to grab dinner or?—”

“I’m sorry, I have plans after this.” It’s not a lie, but most of all, I need distance. Time and space to deal with the weight of her truths and where that leaves me. “But I hope you get back to Raleigh safely.”

She hesitates, biting her lips while her eyes search my face. “I understand. Use my number any time you want, Delilah.Please.”

I nod, backing away from herto find Indigo. When I do, she looks up from her Kindle with a brow quirked. “So, how’d it go?”

“Let me get a rain check on that strawberry poundcake. I need a fucking drink.”

Chapter 53

I Love You

ADONIS

Antoine: I’m looking at your woman dancing on one of my sofas

Me: ?

Antoine: Delilah has been in this club for hours with some pink haired woman

Oh shit. The last time Victor updated me they were eating dinner after going to happy hour at a hotel bar downtown. I check the clock, realizing four hours have passed since then.

I knew I wasn’t fucking crazy for missing her.

Me: Why are YOUstill there this late?

Antoine: Come get your woman, Donny

I snicker at his avoidance.

Me: Give me 15

Delilah is stillon the sofa when I get to my father’s downtown club.

Her smile is the first thing I notice, and it stops me in my tracks. Back pressed against a wall, I watch her and Indigo dance like nobody’s watching.

I expected her to be drunk. For there to be bottles or glasses around her. Evidence of her inebriation. But all I see is a woman having fun with her best friend. Fun she’s probably never been given the chance to have before.

A few feet away from them, Victor looks mildly amused as he keeps his head on a swivel.