Page 46 of The Count
He stormed out and I rolled over, hoping I didn’t throw up in his bed. I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t keep anything down, and my period of captivity just took a devastating turn. How much worse could it get? He had nothing on me to compel any explanation. I owed him a life, but I didn’t owe him this.
The sunlight had dimmed while I slept. I woke to see him sitting on the end of the bed. Only hours ago, I would have reached for him, drew him to my lips, and kissed him. Now, the anger and hatred in his eyes, clawed me open.
He shoved some clothes at me. “Get dressed. We have somewhere to be.”
I pulled apart the mass. Not a dress, but definitely business casual. I put the black slacks and button down on quickly. Then limped into the bathroom slowly to fix my hair and face. I didn’t have time for makeup as he shouted from the sitting room.
It took me longer to get out there than to get dressed.
He stared away, not looking, helping, breathing too close to me when I shuffled into the elevator. “Where are we going?” I ventured.
He leaned away from me. “Doesn’t matter. You’ll see soon enough.”
I made it to the car so slowly. The driver moved to help me, but Will—Eddy—waved him off. Once I sat, I’d broken out in a fine sweat. I lay against the window and hoped the coolness kept me from throwing up all over his backseat.
I paid little attention to the surroundings, until a red brick started to appear more frequently. Then I realized where he’d taken me. How the fuck did he find out? The book, and that bastard Danglers, must have recorded what I explicitly told him not to.
We stopped at the curb and I got out on my own. Anger blazing brighter than the guild and shame and hurt right now. “What are you thinking bringing me here? You fucking bastard. You have no right to bring me here.”
He sauntered up, hands in his pockets, enjoying the torment on my face no doubt. “Oh, I have every right. You belong to me until I let you go.”
I grabbed his arm and whispered. “Then kill me. Be done with it. Shoot me and then move on with your life.”
He shrugged me off hard and I let him. When he started walking, I had no choice but to follow and try to mitigate the damage.
“Welcome to Arthur Hall. The University thanks all our wonderful donors for their help tonight.” A young man announced from the stage.
I sighed in relief. Not him. Thank God.
Then a group of men got on the stage and my world melted around me into a pinpoint of a puddle. He stood up there looking so tall and big and beautiful. I couldn’t keep the tears back now. I stepped against the wall and used it to support myself.
Someone approached. “Ma’am are you alright.”
I couldn’t draw attention to myself. He couldn’t see me. Especially not like this. Eddy stepped up and took my arm over his elbow. “She’s fine. My wife just needs some air.”
He dragged me into the hallway and I pressed my burning forehead against the cold dry wall.
“What the fuck was that?” He demanded in a harsh whisper.
Id lost. He’d won. The boy looked exactly like Eddy. He always had and I didn’t know how I hadn’t put together Will and Eddy sooner. “His name is Albert Dantes. He’s your son.”
Nineteen
Mercy
People passed, oblivious to the pent-up fury we both held back. He leaned over me, his arm braced above my head. Kids were starting to slip out and make a break for better things to do on a Friday night. We needed to get out of here so we could talk openly. Yell at each other, openly.
“Let’s go back to the car,” I urged.
He stared back at the stage and the group of young men laughing and rough housing in the corner. I pulled his arm. “I’ll explain in the car and we can figure this out.”
Shame, guilt, anger, betrayal. Everything had created a soupy mess in my stomach. Not to mention the growing human throwing in her mix of hormones to the pot.
He allowed me to pull him to the car, but his eyes kept straying out the window toward the college building. “Tell me. Now.” Quiet fury lined each utterance and I sat back in the seat preparing to tell him everything.
“When I say this is the entire story I mean it. I told you the truth earlier, but I left this part off. The reason you wanted to shake out me, was this. Albert. After eighteen years of being abused in every way fathomably by my family, I knew I couldn’t let my child grow up like that.”
He shifted in the seat and I flinched involuntarily. A flash of hurt hit his features and then cleared away. Damn it, I couldn’t do anything right these days.
