Page 127 of Delirium
“Go to sleep, baby. This is going to be a long night.”
And it was, the longest night of all. I woke up in the middle of it with her between my legs, sucking me dry, looking at me with eyes filled with lust and need, and I couldn’t deny her.
I never could, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
25
BELLADONNA
Fools.
Stupid, fucking fools.
They thought they could outsmart me. They thought they could live their perfect little lives, leaving me behind? Celebrating Christmas together, having the best time, completely ignoring the fact that I was still out here, waiting, watching, learning their moves.
They were getting too relaxed, too happy, too in love. And Ophelia and Storm… I thought I’d be able to separate them, to isolate her from everyone she loved, but it only backfired. But no more. We weren’t doing that anymore.
I would let them enjoy it for a little while, let them live in their bubble. Those kids she carried, my kids, they still needed time to grow, to get stronger, and then they would be coming to their real mother. To me.
They were my children, she just didn’t know it. She didn’t know anything. No, no, no, she had no idea.
“Madam.” The man I hired to decorate this house came out of the nursery, his eyes plastered on the floor as he stepped in front of me. “Would you like to see the room?”
“Oh,” I exclaimed, smiling at him. “Is it ready?”
“Yes, madam.” He nodded. “I hope you’ll like it.”
I pushed past him and into the room for my children. The blue and pink painted on opposite sides of the room, with the white, fluffy clouds on top of the ceiling, had my heart softening a little bit. They would love this, my little babies.
They would have everything they ever wanted, and this nursery was just a start.
Their cribs were arriving tomorrow and I couldn’t wait to see them living here, sleeping here. My hands pressed to my sternum, my heart beating steadily, ready for what they once stole from me.
Ophelia Aster took away my entire family from me, stole everyone I ever loved, including my children. But I guess, with this, she would redeem herself. She would give me back my children and as a thank you, I would take away everything she ever loved.
Who knew, maybe even Storm would come crawling to me once she was gone. She was poisoning him, poisoning them all, turning them into idiots, because she knew she could control them that way. None of them knew what a vicious predator she was.
None of them knew how dark her soul really was, but I did. I always knew. I did, I did, I did.
And once I cut through her heart with my knife, I’d show them all the black tar coursing through her veins.
26
OPHELIA
March
Three months later
I felt like a fucking penguin,wobbling around, carrying myself and my big-ass belly. Whoever said that the pregnancy was the best experience ever, had obviously never been pregnant with twins.
Because this sucked.
I loved my kids. Loved them with my whole fucking heart, but the fact that I had to pee every fifteen minutes, my swollen ankles, mood swings—let’s not talk about mood swings—made me want to march into the doctor’s office, demanding to induce a premature labor. Did that make me a bad mother? Maybe, possibly, but as I waggled from this shopping mall with a laughing Zoe at my back after I had to pee—again—I was just done.
The sun shone brightly today, a beautiful March day, yet my mood was sourer than Haribo Sour Goldbears, and I was just done.
“Stop laughing, Zoe,” I growled, looking at both sides of the street before passing toward the parking lot where she parked. I couldn’t even drive anymore, because reaching the steering wheel was proving to be extremely difficult for me right now. Hell, I couldn’t even see my vagina anymore. I never thought I’d be feeling sad over that fact, yet here I was, about to cry because I couldn’t see parts of my body.
