Page 76 of The Obsession
“Because you walked away from that shithole with a suitcase and nothing else. I thought you might want these.”
“Mick let you have them?”
“I didn’t ask him. I just took them. They belong to you, don’t they?”
“Yes,” I answer, still struggling to process it all.
Was Mick already missing when he went there? Or is he the reason he hasn’t been seen since?
Dominic never confirmed or denied that he had something to do with Mick’s disappearance. He said some things were better off not knowing, but the trouble with that is the mind doesn’t listen. It keeps digging, filling in the blanks with its own stories. And more often than not, it doesn’t settle on the comforting ones; it drifts towards the worst possibilities.
“So you just took them?” I ask, trying to understand.
He nods slowly. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought it would make you happy.”
There’s a lot to unpack in those words, but there’s something important I need to ask first. “Did you see him?” The question feels heavy in my mouth. I pointtowards the plants. “When you went to get them?” His jaw tenses, but he doesn’t reply. When he turns his face away from me, I think I have my answer. I take a step back, followed by another. “Did you make him disappear?” My voice is so soft, I’m not even sure if he heard me.
His gaze snaps back to me. “Remember what I said to you last night?”
I frown. “You said a lot of things.”
“About not asking questions you won’t like the answer to?”
My stomach tightens. “I remember,” I say, even though I wish I didn’t. His words settle in my mind, like a warning that finally makes sense.
Dominic watches me carefully. There’s something in his eyes that looks nothing like guilt or innocence. It’s something in between, something I’ve never seen on him before. Something that scares me.
“So which is it?” I ask. “Is there an answer I won’t like, or are you just trying to scare me into dropping it?”
He takes a step towards me, so I retreat another. “I’m trying to protect you,” he deflects.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one I can give you right now,” he grumbles, and when he blows out a frustrated breath and turns his back on me, it feels like I’ve been dismissed.
Heat stings behind my eyes, because the truth is I don’t really know this man. Not really. Am I so blinded by the nice things he’s done for me that I refuse to see him for who he really is?
I look down at the plants he’s been tending to, the same ones I used to fuss over daily. My little pots are full of bright, cheerful flowers. Pink geraniums, yellow marigolds, purple petunias, and pansies that always seem to face the sun.
His words echo through me.“I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought it would make you happy.”
And the awful part is that it does … it does make me happy. Seeing them here, alive and thriving, pulls something warm and familiar into my chest. I used to hide on the front porch with them when Mick was in one of his moods. They became my safe place. The one thing that brought me real joy. The one thing in that house that could never hurt or betray me.
But the fact that Dominic saved my plants to please me doesn’t erase the cold, hard truth. It doesn’t make the possibility that he killed Mick any easier to swallow, or that he might have done the same thing to the bikies who came to La Riviera and threatened me.
Have I made the biggest mistake of my life by coming here? Mick did some pretty shit things to me, but as far as I know, he never ended someone’s life. That thought sends a chill down my spine.
Sometimes the devil you know is easier to sit with than the one you can’t even name.
I’m sitting on the sofa with Lil’ Peach curled up beside me when Dominic comes back into the house. He’s been outside for over an hour.
I’m dressed and ready to go, but I didn’t want to leave Peach alone for too long, and confronting him while feeling like this wasn’t a choice. I need space, time to think, and a paying job so I have options going forward.
It feels like I’m at his mercy, just like I was with Mick, but I’m not going to be a doormat this time. I’m taking my power back.
I lean down and kiss Peach’s hair before standing and slinging my bag over my shoulder.
Dominic’s eyebrows pinch together as his gaze moves from my handbag to my face. “Going somewhere?”
