It’s my name. Tattooed on his chest. A mural depicting the feelings he’s always had for me.
It was never my imagination. Chase is right.
This. Us. We’re real.
I’m stunned into silence, my only answer a deep inhale of his sticky skin and a sigh that has me releasing eighteen years’ worth of pent up anguish.
We’re silent for a long time, content in each other’s company. “You know who I am now. And now you’re mine.” He clicks a button on the remote, and a large TV drops down from the ceiling near the foot of the bed. He clicks another button, and it lights up. “Now I can tell you why you’re here.” There isn’t any hesitation in his voice, but he doesn’t sound too eager either.
I roll over, draping a leg over his thigh, waiting to hear whatever it is he has to tell me, but knowing that whatever it is won’t change the feeling that for the first time in my life I’m finally home.
I’ll never be alone again.
Chase frowns as he finds the channel with the local news. “I’m sorry, princess,” he says, and the way he says it I know he’s not apologizing for himself, but then for who?
He points to the TV where a reporter is standing out in front of my house. Behind her is my stepmother who is wearing her usual Chanel suit, only this time it’s black. I didn’t even know she owned anything black. “And now we cut to where Regina Blanca is about to hold a press conference. Let’s listen in.”
Regina dramatically removes the large sunglasses from her face and sniffles. She doesn’t appear sick. Her eyes are clear. “As most of you know by now, my lovely stepdaughter,” she pauses and raises the back of her hand to her mouth, turning away for a brief moment before taking a deep breath and starting again. “As many of you know my stepdaughter, Neve, went missing last night. This morning, a large amount of what has been confirmed as her blood was found in the back yard by the fountain as well as drag marks leading into the woods. As of right now, no body has been recovered, but I’m told that with the amount of blood that she’s lost…it doesn’t look good. At this time, I ask for your prayers and privacy as we try and discover how this tragedy unfolded and figure out where we go from here.” She coughs, and our butler Henry hands her a handkerchief she uses to dab at the corner of her eyes. “Without our Neve.”
Regina turns hastily from the array of microphones and heads back into the house, and I catch Henry rolling his eyes as he follows her inside and shuts the doors.
The reporter turns back to the camera. “You’ve heard it folks. Unfortunately, it’s not looking good for Neve Blanca, and police have confirmed that the search and rescue mission has been replaced with a search and recovery…”
I turn and stare at Chase. He took my blood. I run my fingers lightly over the bandage. The same blood found in the garden. It all clicks. Chase came for me because Regina wanted me dead.
Chase clicks off the TV as I stare at it in complete silence. I’m shocked, but I shouldn’t be. This is typical Regina bullshit. Why would I ever think that murder would be off the menu? Oh, the levels she’d stoop to in order to get her own way.
“Nevie, you okay?” Chase asks, rubbing my back.
“You were supposed to kill me,” I say. “But you didn’t want to, so you took my blood and spread it around to make it look as if I were dead.” I turn to him. “That explains why I’m here, but it doesn’t explain you buying shares of my father’s company in order to gain control.”
Chase smiles and pulls me back on the bed so we are once again lying chest to chest, sticking together as our blood dries between us. “Now that is an even better story,” he says, planting a kiss to the top of my head. “Listen closely, princess, because it’s one I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long fucking time.”
5
Firelight casts dancing shadows across Regina’s face, shrouding her beauty in dark truth. With a click of a button she smiles when yet again The Fairest app notifies her that she is indeed the most beautiful in the city.