whatever we do, you’ll be right by my bastard side.”
Cheska smiled against my mouth and sighed. “I’m an Adley now.”
I growled at my surname on her lips, fucking kissed her harder, forced myself to break away, then said to my family, “Let’s get the fuck home.”
Chapter Eighteen
CHESKA
I stepped out of the shower, breathing in the humid, damp air. I wrapped the towel around me and entered the bedroom. It took me a few seconds to realise Arthur was absent and Eva Adley sat on the armchair. I stopped dead and met her hard gaze.
She was dressed impeccably as always, but as I studied her further, I saw a paleness in her cheeks and redness in her eyes. My heart broke for the Adley matriarch. She had just lost her only remaining son at the murderous hands of a boy she’d raised as a much-loved grandchild. A traitor raised to bring her family down from inside.
“Eva,” I said in greeting and walked toward her. She remained silent, watching me with stony eyes as I stopped a few feet away from where she sat. “I’m sorry,” I said, feeling completely and utterly drained. “About Alfie. About Freddie. I’m so incredibly sorry.”
Eva didn’t react, didn’t flinch. Instead she got to her feet and met me toe to toe. Her eyes ran down the length of me. I braced, waiting for her censure, for her cold dismissal. But when she opened her mouth, she said, “You killed Ollie Lawson.” I couldn’t speak, so I simply nodded.
Eva brushed by me, but as her hand wrapped around the doorknob she turned to face me. “It’s a hard, dangerous and sometimes thankless job being the lady of this firm’s gaffer.”
I lifted my chin at the challenge in her voice. “I’m ready for it.”
Eva’s head tilted to the side as she regarded me. “The road ahead is going to be rough. Arthur won’t rest until he has Pearl back. Until the rest of the Lawson enterprises are destroyed.”
“I know.”
Eva glanced to the roaring fire in the fireplace, then met my gaze once more. “Maybe I was wrong about you,” she said, and warmth burst in my chest at those words. But then she shrugged, lips pursing. “We’ll see.” With that, she left our bedroom, closing the door behind her, her flicker of acceptance bringing a small smile to my lips.
I found him at their graves.
The sun had just started to rise over the Adley church, the dawning of a brand-new day. The harsh wind whipped around my damp hair, sending chills over my freshly-scrubbed skin. I had been desperate to wash the stain of last night from my body. But the stain on my mind wouldn’t go no matter how much water the shower head had pelted down on me. The events of the night were branded onto my brain just as sure as the brand that Ollie’s organisation wore proudly on their wrists.
I was still numb when I thought of Hugo and my dad. I knew I wouldn’t always be. But it was as if my body couldn’t take any more pain, had met its threshold over the past several weeks. It had rejected the heavy emotions trying to pierce me from within and created an impenetrable armour around my heart. An armour that only lowered for my new family and, of course, the king who held my heart in his firm grip.
My feet crunched on the fallen leaves on the ground. Hearing the noise, Arthur looked back and wordlessly held out his hand. The hand that I used to dream he would want me to grasp. The easy affection he now gave.
He was staring at the graves of his mum and sister, a frown on his face. Eyes glued on the new plot that had been dug for his dad, finally joining his beloved wife after all these years without her. We would bury him tomorrow; we would say our final goodbyes.
I clutched Arthur’s hand tightly, giving him the silent support he no doubt needed. I read the epitaph on Pearl’s grave, and I took a deep, sobering breath.
We had no idea whose few remains were buried in this small Adley graveyard. Remains found at the site of the cottage. No doubt planted there after Annie Adley and her much-loved cottage had become nothing but dust.
I laid my head on Arthur’s arm, feeling the heaviness he held in his heart. “Everyone is in the living room. Vinnie is still in his bedroom. But everyone else is