Page 145 of The Chaos She Brings

The gun pointed at my face.

The front door opening has me screaming.

Kai appears, his eyes scanning the room for danger.

“Tess? What is it?” His voice is frantic as he assesses me from head to toe.

My bottom lip wobbles and tears pool in my eyes. “Where were you?” I croak.

His expression morphs, filling with understanding and I hate the pity I see in his eyes. He moves towards me, cautiously, before pulling me into his arms.

Only once his arms are wrapped around me in a tight embrace does the fear leave my body.

“I’m sorry, Hurricane.” He places a light kiss on my forehead. “I went out to get you breakfast. Thought I’d be home before you woke up.”

His words are supposed to be reassuring but all they do is make me feel stupid. Weak.I can’t even handle waking up alone.

“Oh,” I mumble into his chest, wrapping my arms around his waist.

Not wanting to appear more insane than I already do, I shake off the lingering tension and smile up at him. “What’s this about breakfast?”

He disappears for a moment, reappearing witha McDonalds bag.

My eyes go comically wide, and a real smile breaks over my face.

“Please tell me you got extra hashbrowns,” I say, bouncing on my toes excitedly.

He just rolls his eyes at me before ushering me over to the sofa and setting the food out on the coffee table. Gone are the days where he’d make us eat at the kitchen table for every meal.

I fill the void while we eat, chatting his ear off about everything and nothing. As long as it’s not silent I’m okay.

Kai indulges me, even chiming in to ask questions about my ridiculous story of the time I went to the wrong lecture at university. (I definitely could have been a doctor).

“Did you schedule an appointment with Dr. Morgan?” he asks me after lunch.

“Yeah,” I murmur. “Turns out she moved to London, so I can see her in person.”

Carina gave me her number—she’s the therapist who helped Carina heal fromhertrauma. I thought I’d have to do Zoom calls since she used to live in Italy, but fate had other plans.

I’m still not surehowto talk about what happened.

But I know I need to.

It’s not just because I’m pregnant, though that’s part of it.

It’s because I’m scared.

Scared to sleep.

Scared to be alone.

I’mtired.

So, I’m going to try. Ihaveto. I can’t keep relying on Kai to pull me out of my head.

I spend the rest of the day keeping myself close to Kai, never letting him out of my sight. He doesn’t complain. He seems to understand that I need it.

At six, there’s a knock on the door.