Page 97 of Theirs to Desire (Club M: Boxed Set)

AVERY

F or a long time, I’m numb.

Then I cry, bitter tears of grief for the ten years I lost because of what my parents did.

And then I get angry. Furious. Raging.

My parents have been lying to me my entire life. They’ve been using me, counting on my love for them and my sense of duty.

It’s a quarter past four in the morning in London. I don’t give a damn. I dial their number, letting the phone ring over and over again. Finally, after the fourth attempt, my mother answers, her voice sleepy. “Avery, do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Tell me, mother. At what point were you planning on telling me you weren’t ill?”

She inhales sharply, but before she can start denying it, I cut her off. “Don’t,” I say. “I know everything. The Irish mob was a figment of your imagination. Father was never in any danger. You concocted an elaborate story to get me to marry Victor. What I want to know is, why?”

“Fine. I’ll tell you,” she spits out, her voice vibrates with anger.

“We sent you to the best schools. We did everything to get you to hang out with the right crowd, and instead, who did you pick as your friends? Those common girls, Tillie and Hannah. Then, when you turned eighteen, you insisted on getting a job. In a pub, of all the bloody places. You were making us a laughing stock. Jeremy and Maisie Welch’s daughter, working as a bartender. ”

“I was just trying to live my life.”

She ignores that. “Then you started talking about moving out, and we knew we had to act. You were ruining your life, and we needed to take steps to prevent that.”

“You never did give a shit about me, did you, mother?” I can’t keep the bitterness out of my voice.

“You paid for my schooling, and you thought that made me your property. I was nothing but a tool for you. A way to buy yourself access to high society. You didn’t care that I was miserable with Victor. ”

I still believe in the social contract between generations. My parents have never held up to their end of the bargain, however. I owe them nothing.

After all these years, I finally realize that it’s okay to acknowledge that.

It’s okay that I never want to talk to them again.

“I didn’t realize that the most peaceful period of my life was the seven years you refused to talk to me,” I say quietly.

“Lesson learned, mother.” Though my heart is breaking, my voice is as hard as steel.

“I want my five hundred thousand dollars returned. And I never, ever want to talk to either of you again.”

I lie, curled into a ball for a very long time, drained and numb, not sure how to move past this. The photos of Kai, Maddox, and me back in Dublin are still on the coffee table, mocking me with their images of happiness.

The box containing the collar is on the couch next to me. Tomorrow morning, I’ll start to pull the shattered pieces of my life back together. Noon will come and go, but Kai and Maddox won’t be swinging by to pick me up. We won’t be headed to Club M. All of that is over.

I fucked up.

“Avery, wake up.”

I blink and rub the sleep from my eyes. Kai and Maddox are standing in front of me, and for a second, I wonder if I’m dreaming. “What are you doing here?”

“Your building’s security is appalling,” Maddox replies. “Someone let us into the lobby, and your front door was unlocked.”

“Oh.” I can’t bring myself to care. I’m just too drained.

“I talked to my parents,” I tell them wearily.

“And you were right about everything. They’ll send back the money I borrowed from you, and I’ll pay you back.

” I swallow the lump in my throat. “Every time I walk into your lives, I seem to ruin it. Once the money’s in your account, I think it’s probably best that we don’t see each other again. ”

“Avery,” Kai says bluntly. “Shut up and let us talk.”

I’m jolted into silence.

“Get on the floor,” Maddox orders. “On your knees with you. Spread your legs for me, sweetheart. I want to see my pussy.”

My heart starts to hammer in my chest. If they’re giving me orders, does it mean they’re staying? That there’s a way forward through this tangle?

“We went to see Lowell,” Kai says.

“Kai punched him,” Maddox adds with a smirk.

“You’re a surgeon,” I gasp, forgetting that I haven’t been given permission to talk. “Your hands…”

Maddox’s eyes narrow. “I believe your instructions were quite clear, Avery.”

Ouch.

Kai flexes his fingers. “I’m not saying it’s the smartest thing I’ve ever done.

” He looks like the cat that swallowed the canary.

“On the other hand, it might have been the most satisfying.” He reaches for the box containing the collar.

“We realized something, Maddox and I, while we were chatting with Lowell. All our fears and doubts stem from something that happened ten years ago. I’m tired of the past, Avery. I’m far more interested in our future.”

Joy blazes in my chest. “I’m sorry. I should have told you about Victor earlier.”

“Yes,” Maddox agrees. “And we should have listened better, and we shouldn’t have walked out of here tonight,” Maddox says. “I’m sorry too. I won’t leave again.”

“Crawl over here, Avery,” Kai says. His voice is stern, but there’s so much love in his eyes that I think I’m going to cry all over again. “And ask us to put this collar on you.”

I do exactly as I’m told, shivering as Kai and Maddox fasten the twin clasps of my collar. “I love you, Avery Welch,” Maddox whispers. “You belong to us. Not for fourteen weeks. Forever.”

“Yes.” Some roads are more convoluted than others, some paths longer. But as Kai and Maddox lock my collar in place, I know I’m exactly where I want to be. With them. Together.