I cringe, seeing exactly what he means.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I just couldn’t leave him in there.”
There’s silence for a bit. Cole and Liam exchange a look, then Cole looks at me.
“Apparently.”
He’s angry with me.
“Nope, you don’t get to be mad at me like that. Both of you show up in here days later, with carts that… I can’t even begin to explain, if I was a clueless desperado, I would have been flattered thinking you missed me.”
“We did miss you,” Cole says softly. “More than you know.”
“But you never came to see me. I bet you were always with your bestie and yet I saw you loitering in the hallway, never coming in.”
It’s as I say that that I realize how bitter I am about that.
“Oh no, no, baby girl,” Cole rushes to say. “We wanted to come in and see you, but we had to keep things hushed so as not to arouse suspicion with that fucking man who calls himself your father.”
“For the record, I was with her every day,” Liam announces.
“What? When?” Cole demands.
“When I left you and that jerk racking your brains trying to find a way to get out of the mess you’re in.”
“Oh, so when you burst out the room, overcome with your emotions, you were sneaking in here to cry your heart out by Mia’s bed?” Cole says nodding his head slowly. “J’s going to love that one, seeing as he only saw her all but twice and got bad news each time.”
They both turn to look at me.
“What? I’m not here to soothe Julian’s complicated feelings.”
“Well damn, good for you!” Cole says. “So these lovely gestures of love and undying devotion are not doing anything for you?”
Gestures of love and undying emotion? Did they read that off of whatever stupid website they bought these from?
“What’s that supposed to be? You didn’t explain.” I point at Cole’s cart.
“The man said you’d know.”
I’d know?
Pushing past Cole and Liam, I walk over to the first cart, the one Liam bought in. I stare at the contents, skimming over the tea and the candy. I look at the teddy bear and the flowers.
Everything about this shit is just out of place.
I walk over to the other cart and stop dead in my tracks. Before, I thought the cart was empty but no, it’s not.
In the middle, on a silver platter—literally—is a very familiar lighter I’ve seen before.
The one he used to burn the dress I thought Nancy was going to pass down to me.
“W-what is this doing here?”
“I actually wanted to ask you that,” Cole says. When I don’t say a word, he goes on. “You two are fucking different. You just stopped breathing when you saw that lighter instead of being normal and swooning over a fucking teddy bear and flowers.”
Ignoring them both, I pick up the lighter slowly. It’s cold to the touch but somehow, holding it in my hand brings a sense of relief to me. When I turn it over though, everything in me screeches to a halt at the engraving of a bullet and the words running up the side.
You already set my world on fire, but I’d still walk through the flames to come 4 u.
Suddenly, there’s a ball lodged in my throat. My eyes become blurry with fresh tears. I hold the lighter firmly in my grip until reality reminds me of the promise I made myself. God, I’m having a hard time holding on to that promise.
As if I’ve been burned, I put the lighter back down and then swivel around on my heel and march my way back the hospital bed, ignoring two pairs of curious intense eyes on me.
“You know what, you can go tell Julian to fuck off and leave me alone,” I say, grabbing my bag with force. “And tell him I meant what I said.”
And with that I march to the bathroom and lock the door.
When I walk out twenty minutes later, both Cole and Liam are still there but the silent patience they had before is gone. Instead, there’s a new air of tension in the room. Something happened.
“What happened?” I demand. Oh God, please let it not be Julian.
Cole is talking to someone on the phone and Liam, he’s looking at me.
“A nurse delivered your phone.”
I stare at the phone on the dresser beside the bed.
“That’s not mine,” I whisper, not knowing why I’m even whispering.
“I thought so,” Liam says. “There’s a fucking text.”
“Okay…”
He passes me the phone. When I read the text, I feel my world closing in on me.
You belong to someone now.
When they come for you, don’t put a fit or even try to escape.
Or else the consequences of your refusal will be devastating, Amy.
Oh shit.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Julian
“Fuck,” I breathe, walking through the door of the house we grew up in and never really realized the depth of how fucked up this place really was.
“I really, really hate this place,” Liam mutters as he comes in, bypassing me. “It gives me the fucking creeps now.”
“I second that,” I mumble, looking around like I’m seeing this shithole for the very first time.
“Speak for yourself,” Cole says, bypassing us. “This place has all the digs. Coming from the street, this is a lot.”
“You haven’t been living on those cold ass streets of Chicago since you were three, asswipe,” I mumble.
“And your fucking estate is bigger than this,” Liam says with a low chuckle.
“Oh yeah. It is, isn’t it?” Cole laughs. I roll my eyes.
The laughing does down as quickly as it started. No one’s really in the mood to be find humor in anything, though we do try.
We’re standing in the foyer of the mansion, and all I feel is the chilly breeze in this deceptively decorated hell. I’m aware of the glaring emptiness in it.
This house has seen every horror and holds more secrets than a fuckery government black ops site.
Nancy died in this house.
Aiden was tortured and mistreated in this shithole.
Aiden and Liam almost drowned in the pool housed in this very mansion.
It’s safe to say I don’t want anything to do with this place and the last thing I need is to standing in here at six in the morning, looking as miserable as I feel.
“Why are we here again?” Liam grit out.
As I stand there, all I can think and recall is Mia. She made this place bearable. She made me look forward to coming home because she was here. And now, her ghost is floating in the room, sparking my annoyance.
“Relax,” I mutter. “I don’t want to be here anymore than you do but Dad said he wants to meet us here.”
“Then where the fuck is he?” Liam demands. “And what are we going to do about that text?”
“I’m fucking taking care of it!”
“Damn! Is it me or is he more sour than usual?” Liam mumbles to Cole.
“Tell me about it,” Cole mutters.
“Did something happen?”
“Does something need to happen? He’s a brooding asshole by default.”