Page 56 of His Little Secret in Discretion

“Yeah,” I said automatically, standing. “Just my uncle.”

She glanced down at the preoccupied little girl fixing her dance bag before speaking softly. “I thought he was still at—”

“He is.” I cut her off unintentionally, stepping out into the hallway to answer as my hands shook.

My voice stayed tight as I swiped to accept.

“Uncle Wes?”

His voice came low. Nervous almost.“He stopped by.”

My blood ran cold.

“Who?”

He let out a defeated sigh.“You know who, honey.”

I pressed my back against the cold hallway wall, running my shaky hand over my scalp to ground myself. “What did he want?” I all but seethed.

“He didn’t say much. Just told me he just wanted to ‘check in.’”

“Felix never just wants to check in on us,” I murmured, and Uncle Wes let out a light chuckle, one that calmed my racing heart for just a split second.

“I thought the same thing when I saw him…”

Then there was a pause, a hesitation in his voice that led me to believe that Felix didn’t just visit to say hi.

“Uncle Wes…” I whispered, already bracing myself.

“He left something,”he finally said.“An envelope. Didn’t open it yet—”

“Don’t.” My voice cracked. I didn’t even know what was in it, for God’s sake. But the fact that it was alone with him, the fact that anything or everything could have been in it, was sending me over the edge. “Don’t open it. Don’t touch it. Don’t—”

“Maia, honey,”he cut me off gently.“I’m not going to open it.”My useless tears were already falling.“You okay, kid?”

I wasn’t. But I nodded anyway, like he could see me. “Yeah. I’m good.”

“Maia…”

“I’m handling it,” I said. “I promise.”

We both knew it was a lie, but he didn’t say anything, and neither did I. The silence between us was thick as the words hung between us.

“You coming by later?”he asked, like he didn’t already know I’d drop everything if he asked me to.

“I’ll stop by after class,” I murmured.

He let out a tired sigh.“Yeah. I figured you would.”

Stepping into my apartment, I threw my dance bag onto the couch, setting the envelope down on the kitchen counter. I couldn’t even look at it. I wanted to burn it, set it on fire, pretend it was Felix, and maybe strangle it—but that would do me no good.

Instead, I showered, washed my hair, and got dressed in a little ditsy pajama set before I inevitably walked over to the envelope. It was large, heavy, filled with something I probably didn’t need to see but was going to anyway.

Opening it slowly, the first thing I pulled out was a paper. Actually, a receipt showing the thousands of dollars paid off and a small mockingCongratulationsprinted at the bottom.

Inside, however, was… another envelope? One with the meat of it all, as the weight was mostly within it. Pulling it out, I read the writing on the front of it silently.

Old habits never die, Wes. This one's on me.