Page 42 of Silver Sinner

"Ugh. Is that all?"

I can't fathom if he's too stupid to do the math or if he's just spent the past seven years in a whirlwind and doesn't realize how long it's been since we were together. "I don't understand. Seven years and all you did was threaten me in a text once or twice a year. Why are you here now?"

"You." He taps me on the chest with the pasta box. "You had a man here."

"What?"

"One of my cop buddies told me you had a man here. Who was he?"

"I…" A cop? The one I called because Maddie was missing? How, out of all of that, is the fact that I had a man here more important than Maddie's disappearance? I'm so stunned by his thinking that silence drags between us and Trik grows impatient.

And violent.

He turns and launches the pasta box through the kitchen window, shattering the glass on impact, then he grabs me by the throat with both hands and slams me down on the kitchen table so hard that dark spots dance in front of my eyes.

"What man did you have here? Don't you remember what I told you when we were last together? That I would ruin you for any other man? I did that, and then you fucking went and got pregnant because you're a vindictive fucking cow!"

I can't breathe. He presses down on my throat and brings his face an inch from mine. His dark, soulless eyes are an empty abyss that almost swallows me whole.

And I remember.

I remember them above me seven years ago when he paid enough to tear me apart and leave me a broken mess in the corner of the bathroom. It pains me to this day that such a violent man gave me my beautiful daughter, but no money in the world was worth that treatment.

"A fr-iend," I choke out with a wheeze. "He's just a friend! I have friends!"

Trik shoves against me and then releases me. As I gasp and flinch up from the table, he backhands me and sends me crashing to the floor.

"It better be."

"Wh-what?"

"Are you deaf?" He drops to his haunches next to me, balanced on the balls of his feet. "It better be. Did you really think I'd let the mother of my child fuck anyone else? You're fucking insane if you thought so."

This barely makes sense. Seven years ago he never wanted to see me again. He'd sent me threats as if his hatred for me couldn't be tamed. Now, suddenly, he's in my kitchen acting like he has a claim to Madeline and me?

Why?

What's changed?

"He's j-just a friend," I repeat, cowering away from him as my lip throbs.

"Good. And if you're lying to me, I'll come back here and break your fucking legs, understand me?"

"No," I gasp. "I don't understand. I don't understand why you're here or what you want or⁠—"

His cold, cruel fingers pinch around my jaw and he drags me close, his eyes flashing with venom. "I don't need to explain myself to you, understand? I've made myself clear. Don't make me come back here."

And with that, he's gone, leaving me crumpled on the floor with nothing but pain and utter confusion. What the hell brought him back after seven years? Why did he want to check on Maddie?

It doesn't make sense. Nothing makes sense.

I curl up on the floor and press my cheek to the cold tiles, staring at the empty doorway. Then I give in to the despair in my chest, and cry.

14

PIERCE

I don't believe it.