Page 138 of The Temptation of Truth

AURORA

It’squiet in the car on the drive back to the house, and I keep my eyes out the dark window, watching the night woosh past.

I can’t quit picking at my thumbs. I can’t calm the racing of my heart. I can’t be still, and I know it’s annoying my uncle, because, for the third time in ten minutes, he places his palm on my knee to halt my bouncing. I send him an apologetic smile, then ask him the same question I’ve already asked him multiple times since we left Brady’s hotel this morning.

“Did I do the right thing?”

He arches a brow. “Doyouthink you did the right thing?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s the right thing.”

I sigh. He’s been giving me the same answer every time I ask, and I’m tired of it.

“Uncle Wade. I want to know whatyouthink.”

“Why?”

“Because. It’s important to me.”

He pauses, scanning my face with eyes that are so much like my father’s that my chest aches. Then he takes my hand and folds it between both of his, and my eyes well with tears. Myfather used to do this exact thing, and in this moment, it’s like he’s here with me.

“I think it was the right decision,” my uncle says finally, giving my hand a squeeze, “and your parents would think so, too.”

I close my eyes and soak up his words, hoping they’re true.

I didn’t get married thinking I’d file for divorce eighteen months later, but I spent all day in a hotel board room video conferencing with divorce lawyers my uncle hired. I didn’t agree to move in with the Sinclairs thinking I’d risk slipping into darkness, but here I am, four years later, fighting to claw myself back out of it. It feels like it’s happening too fast, but not fast enough, and all I can do is go one step at a time.

“Thank you,” I whisper. “I’m scared. Everything is going to change so drastically. I don’t know if I can handle it.”

“It’s okay to be scared. Change can be very scary. What you did took courage, and I’m so damn proud of you for being scared and doing it anyway. You can do this, Aurora Jade. You deserve to be happy, and I’m glad we’re going about it this way and not through a contract killer.”

I hiccup on a laugh as tears start to fall down my face. “You want me to be happy even if I have to move into your basement?”

He arches a brow. “Even if you fall for my degenerate drummer.”

I almost choke on my own spit with how violently my muscles freeze.

“What?”

My voice is barely a croak around the word, and a playful smile takes over my uncle’s face.

“It’s my job to know everything,” he says, as if it’s no big deal, and my jaw drops at his implication.

To knoweverything? What does that mean? Is he saying he knows I have feelings for Mabel, or is he saying he knows I hadmy face between her thighs a few nights ago? What exactly does he know? Should I ask? Do I want to know?

I shake my head to rattle away the thought. No, I definitely do not.

“Are you mad?”

“Rossi is a good kid.”

“She’s thirty, Uncle Wade.”

My uncle’s eyes flare. “Don’t remind me, or Iwillbe mad.”

I fold my lips between my teeth to hide my smile and jerk out a nod. Then, just as we’re pulling into the circle driveway, he squeezes my hand once more.