Queen Devastation here was.
She planted her seeds and now, they’re about to spring up overnight and bash my head in.
Stilling myself, I reach for the doorknob to her room, the speech I’ve been rehearsing to myself now falling part like some cheap 1-ply toilet paper. With my heart in my throat, I twist the doorknob then silently step through the doorway.
The first thing that hits me is the stench of death hovering in the room like an ominous cloud, ready to rain down hell down on us. A shiver of awareness and sadness aps through me when the septic smell of medicine stings my nostrils, reminding me once more that I don’t have long with the woman I believed to be my mother all my life.
She’s dying and I’ve been an unbearable, selfish little bitch lately as a good fuck you to everything she’s done for me in classic Mia Montague, Ice Queen fashion.
God, please let her forgive me.
I force myself to ignore the chaos in my mind as I slowly take a step in the door, then look up, ready to grovel my heart out, ready to say anything that will make her forgive me but before I can say anything, I freeze as disbelief then horror slam into me like a freight train.
I blink several times but the image is still there right in front of me.
Nancy… she’s lying in her comfortable hospital bed, her frail body now reduced to nothing more than a pile of bones, but that’s not what makes me gasp as something like a riot starts simmering slowly in the pit of my stomach.
There’s someone in bed with her.
They are not naked, no. Instead, he’s wearing one of his custom-tailored suit pants, with a black silk shirt, sans tie, the buttons at the collar are open, his sleeves are rolled up, I can see a tattoo peeking out on one of his left arm… the one that’s wrapped around my mother.
He’s peppering soft, sweet kisses all over her face like he more that adores my mother and the way she’s looking up at him, it’s a look she’s never given anyone before. Not even my father.
She’s looking at John Fitzgerald like he’s the love of her life.
What the fuck?
3
“What…” I stutter, looking at them in shock. “What are you doing?”
My voice comes out as nothing more than a broken whisper that I can’t control.
John practically jumps a few feet in the air the moment he hears my voice, but I don’t move at all. I can’t believe what I’m seeing, my jaw is slack as I blink slowly like I’m witnessing a bad accident.
Am I having some sort of a nightmare?
Did I just see Julian and Liam’s asshole of a father kissing my mother—I mean, my aunt? Was he just whispering inaudible sweet nothings in her ear?
“What are you doing in here?” I demand, staring at John in horror, shock moving through my system until I feel almost lethargic. My vision dims for a second, a low buzzing sound starts ringing from somewhere. What is this? It sounds like an alarm of some sort.
“Mia,” John starts, but I don’t really hear him as everything Courtney just said comes rushing back to me.
Oh God, of all the things I was expecting to find as soon as I opened this door… this wasn’t anywhere near the shit I was imagining.
“Oh my God, what were you doing just now?” I almost shriek, my heart thundering away in my chest.
I see Nancy slowly turn around with great effort to look at me, her eyes filled with horror when she sees me standing there, but I can’t peel my eyes off of John.
“Answer me!” I demand, my voice getting high-pitched.
“Mia,” John starts, but his voice is low and deep, his eyes filled with so much emotion that I refuse to identify. He glances at Nancy then back at me, opening and closing his mouth like he suddenly doesn’t know how to speak. “I know what it must look like to you.”
“What it must look like?” I screech, staring at him like I’ve never seen him before.
“I can explain,” he rushes to say but I take a step back, shaking my head. “I… I didn’t know you were back. The boys, your father, and Nicky are out of their minds looking for you.”
That’s his excuse?
“You don’t care about my father or Nicky,” I seethe. “Get away from her. Get away from her right now!”
John takes a step back from Nancy’s