Page 31 of Severed Heart

His eyes snap to mine. “Don’t ever apologize to me,” he scolds. “I’m fucking glad I was there.”

“Me too.”

“Wish you would have confided in me sooner.”

“We all have our shit,” I relay on exhale.

“This is different, and I mean it,” he continues in a rare, serious tone, “you don’t have to enlist.”

“I’ve got some time to decide.”

“Yeah, you do, and whatever you do decide, we’ve got your back.”

Pulling into his driveway, I sit idly behind the wheel, feeling more exhausted than I can ever remember being.

“Coming in?” Dom asks as he gets out and grips the passenger door.

“Yeah, I’m going to drop the van off, and I’ll be back.”

Nodding, he closes the door before heading toward the house. Halfway to the porch, he glances back, shooting a rare concerned look before I give him a reassuring nod through the windshield.

After dropping the van and sneaking the key onto the counter, I exit my house undetected and start the short walk back to Dom’s. As I hit the street, I welcome the sting on my face in hopes that the biting cold will help clear my head while grappling with what had just transpired—along with Dad’s admissions. My mother can’t know he’s cheating. She can’t. She’s too prideful. She loves him too fucking much. She would never be so callous and turn him away for a burn he endured in the line of duty. He’s full of shit. He’s got to be.

Rounding the corner to Dom’s street, I spot Delphine exiting the front door, stopping just short of the iron railing enclosing the porch. The sight of her breaks up some of my inner turmoil as a spark ignites, the cherry burning at the end of her cigarette stoking the notion that struck me earlier. A spark that has me hastening my steps toward her and a possible solution. As she comes into view, I notice her attention is fixed on the falling snow.

Without overthinking it, I make a beeline toward her. As I pound up the snow-dusted steps and approach, I can visibly see when my presence jars her out of whatever memory she was just lost in as she flits her focus to me. Her expression bleak, seeming ... mournful.

“I need you to teach me,” I say as I reach her, towering over her as I did months ago.

The silver-gray eyes that have been haunting me since she brought me back that day slowly focus on mine as confusion sets in her expression. “Teach youwhat?”

“Everything.”

Chapter Eleven

DELPHINE

SUNLIGHT STREAMS THROUGHmy bedroom window, further warming my burning skin as the skipping blades of my rusted fan drag me further into consciousness. Peeling the sweat-covered sheet from my body before readjusting it, I curse the fact that I didn’t close my curtains last night in my stupor. Burying my face into my pillow to shield my eyes from the blinding sun, I grope for the pint on my nightstand. Lifting it, I can tell by the lack of weight that there is not a drop left, knowing I drained whatever my bottles held last night. The snow has come early this year, taunting me with Matis’s pleas.

“Je suis vraiment désolé. Je suis vraiment désolé. Pardonne-moi.”I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. Forgive me.

His ancient whispers had me reaching for more drink—too much drink. The pounding in my head only confirms this as I release the empty pint, which smacks against my nightstand before clunking loudly on the floor.

“Merde,” I grumble before a light chuckle sounds from feet away.

Cracking one eye open, I look over to see Tyler standing in my bedroom doorway. “What are you doing here?”

“Training day one. Your orders,remember?”

“Oui.” A small lie. I had reached for more drink as soon as the drift began. Through my haze and Matis’s distant whispers through the snowfall, I vaguely remember his request because of the haunted look in his eyes. That, and his determined expression when he approached me to ask for help.

Help to ... teach him. “We were to startafterschool.”

“It’s almost four o’clock,” he notes, turning the face of a watch on his wrist in my direction.

The pounding in my head protests my idiocy in agreeing as I dismiss him.

“Go, we . . .” My skull tightens. “W-we will starttomorrow.Merci.”