Page 160 of Severed Heart

“I started renovations when I got back at the beginning of summer. But if I’m completely honest, I always had you in mind to live here. It made choosing the paint easy. In my mind, this has always been your house, Delphine. I’ve always pictured you living here. Even back then.”

“Tyler,” she palms her heart. “This is all I have ever wanted. To live on land so beautiful,” she sniffs as I pull her up from the floor, “but I did notearn this.”

“There are about three dozen soldiers or more who owe their lives to you that would say otherwise,” I tell her.

“What? What do you mean?” she asks.

“I’ll tell you another time.” I pause a beat as she shakes her head, bewildered. “So, you don’t think you’ll have an issue moving?”

“Moving here? Are you fucking joking?” She palms my chest. “I know what you mean,” she taps her finger to her head, “mentally, and the answer is no. No issue. I told your motheryesterdayI want out of that fucking house. And knowing I can live here with my soldier, I don’teverwant to go back,” she states emphatically.

“Then you never have to go back,” I say as her sentiment sets my chest pumping. “I’ll get your stuff boxed and here for you tomorrow.”

“No, no, leave it. I don’t want a single part of my past to touch my future. I will get what I have to from it later.” She lifts her chin. “I will make this all new. A new life, Tyler.” Her eyes sparkle. “My future.”

She brings her watery gaze to mine, gripping my hands, hers shaking. “Soldier, this is the best day of my life, andyougave it to me.”

“No, it’snot,” I tell her as she beams at me. “I promise you it’s not.”

Chapter Forty-Two

DELPHINE

EZEKIEL GROANS FROMwhere he lays on my old couch, swatting at his forehead where a fly landed, his action severely delayed due to his state. Not long after, he turns his agony-twisted expression toward me where I sit inches away—perched at the edge of the coffee table while tryingvery hardto hold my laughter. My typically immaculately dressed and formidable nephew looks an utter mess in his disheveled suit, gin leaking from his every pore. Even with my hope that he never abuses the drink as I have, I manage to find the humor in this situation. Especially as he groans in his stupor at the headache I’m sure is brewing behind his eyes.

“I donotmiss this part,at all,” I whisper to Tyler, where he stands behind me, also in wait. Armed with one of my headache powders, a dog’s hair of my nephew’s preferred gin sits in the glass next to me, as well as one of Tyler’s sports drinks.

After another handful of seconds, Ezekiel groans, and I can’t help the soft, nervous laugh that escapes me when he loudly smacks his parched lips. At the sound of my chuckle, Ezekiel’s eyes finally slit open. The unmistakable color of his father’s, he looks over and blinks a few times before he focuses on me.

Just after, he lifts his fire-colored gaze over my shoulder and narrows it on the man standing behind me. My oldest nephew had crash-landed last night after weeks of purposeful silence. His refusal to speak to his brothers a punishment after discovering Jean Dominic and Sean’s betrayal in their involvement with Cecelia. Tyler reported Ezekiel was so angry upon arrival that he got black-out drunk and passed out just after doling out the rest of their punishment. Which forced Tyler to somehow get him here and drag him to the couch.

Tyler called me just after and asked if it was okay that he stay with him until he woke. I happily stayed home, unafraid, after threeblissfulweeks in the new house. The change of location alone during these weeks having transported me into a much better headspace—a healing space. But despite my hatred for this house, I came to see my nephew and possibly sort through what contents here that I might consider bringing to my new home.

“The fuck are you two doing?” Ezekiel finally asks as he lifts to sit and then stand, taking off his jacket due to the stifling August heat and the shit air conditioning in this house. Something else I do not miss. Making me question how I lived here for so long with so little comfort?

In a drunken, numb blur.That’s how.

Picking up the gin and powder, I offer it to Ezekiel, and he takes it, his glare remaining on Tyler.

“Hello to you too,” I say through another laugh. “I am hereto pick up some things and came to see you,” I tell him as he has sense enough to open the powder, but onlyaftergulping down his gin. After lining his tongue with the medicine, he downs half the sports drink as I chuckle. My laughter earns me a nasty side-eye from Tobias before he poses his question to Tyler. “And you?”

“I’m the guy who got you to safety last night after you went comatose,remember?” Tyler utters as the tension between them starts to brew.

Sighing, Ezekiel resumes his seat in front of me, and I grab his hand in an effort to regain his attention. Celine’s son has become such a strong, intimidating, powerful, brilliant, and handsome man. Just after I softly say his name, Ezekiel finally lowers his wrathful gaze to me and stares back at me. A few long seconds pass before his stare lightens by a fraction. “You look ...well, Tatie.”

“Thank you,” I smile, “I feel well, and you look likeshit,” I laugh.

“Thanks,” he clips, rolling his eyes before addressing me, “and your treatments are done?” he prods, ignoring Tyler entirely as he scans me, starting to sense the change.

“Yes, all done, thank fuck,” I answer with a happy sigh as he continues to stare back at me curiously.

“You’ve put on some weight. Your complexion is ...” He pauses the sports drink at his lips. “Wait ...” his eyes roll over me for long speculative seconds. “Tatie, are you...sober?”

I nod several times, smiling with pride-filled tears in my eyes. “Thirty-fourdaystoday, Ezekiel.”

His jaw goes slack, and his eyes immediately lift to Tyler before they narrow.

“It’s not like I could fucking tell you with you avoiding me,” Tyler defends, “you were MIA for three fucking weeks before you popped up last night,brother.”