heart.
“I miss you so much, Turner,” I say to the sky above.
“I’m sure he misses you, too.”
I draw in a breath. In spite of the warmness from the sun, chills break out on my arms.
“What do you want, Trent?” I demand.
I twist my hands around the sheer of the drapes, wishing they were around either his or my mother’s neck, squeezing, sucking the life out of them slowly, like they’re trying to do to me.
“Your mother left to go get her nails done or some shit, so I brought you some food.”
He strides in, placing a plate on the small table. I want to lecture myself and refuse to eat it. Knowing I can’t, I curtly nod like a damn grateful fool, pull out one of the two chairs and sit, dragging the plate across the table in front of me.
Towing the other chair around the table, he sits close enough to me that his leg brushes up against mine. Shit, having him this close to me makes me want to regurgitate the bite of ham sandwich I just took.
“Look, I’m sorry about the other night. I knew better than to even come in here in the first place. It’s just . . .”
He breaks off as he gets a good look at me.
“Jesus Christ! Your face.”
He grazes the now slightly scabbed cut on my right cheek. I suppress my natural instinct to jerk away from his touch. Might as well take advantage and see if Trent really does care about me at all. I allow my crocodile tears begin to fall.
“You should have seen her. Sh-she threatened to take Journey away from me,” I sob.
“She did what?”
“She wants her! She’s going to take her from me.”
His next words startle me.
“She doesn’t want her.”
“She hates me, she always has. And she knows the only way she can ever hurt me is taking my daughter away from me! She’s already taken away my husband and my family. Journey’s all I have left.”
He doesn’t disagree with me immediately, which scares the living shit out of me. I swear I see a shadow of remorse cross his face. You took him away, too, I want to shout.
“She wants the money, not Journey.”
I sweep the hair out of my eyes, tucking it behind my ears. All the while he watches me, studying me to see if I’m lying, or faking my reaction.
“What are you implying?” I pull my brows together.
“She plans on giving Melody the baby in exchange for the twenty million dollars.”
What in the hell, Mother?
“That’s never going to happen. She’s lying to you. Melody can’t get that money. Inheritances don’t work like that. You don’t just call people up and say, ‘oh, hey, by the way, can I have my son’s twenty million dollars? I need to exchange it for his daughter.’” I throw my hands up in the air. “She’s smarter than that and you know it. I cannot believe you are falling for her bullshit!”
Suddenly I have lost my appetite. I need to eat though, so I force it all down without even looking back up at him. The entire time I can feel him observing me.
“I’m almost out of water,” I say, perturbed, standing up to retrieve a bottle of water out of the small fridge.
“I’ll bring some,” he quickly responds. “And I’m not falling for her lies. She knows she won’t get twenty million dollars. She also knows how much Melody would love to have Journey. She’s banking on it.”
My mouth drops open, taken aback by his callous talk.
“You mean she’s counting on the fact Melody will want Turner’s baby, because her father is dead, so she’s going to blackmail her, exchange my daughter for money?”
His mouth opens to say something then he looks to the floor. Fucker. I hope you honestly feel guilty about what you did and it’s slowly eating away at you from the inside out. Jesus Christ. I knew she was evil . . . but this, this proves just how inhuman she really is.
“What’s Mother of the Year’s plan for me after she takes Journey?”
My stomach is in knots because I know without a doubt what her plans are for me. I just want to hear him say it.
“I don’t know.”
“Bullshit,” I call. “You may be able to pull the wool over her eyes for whatever fucking reason, but not mine. So there is no need for you to lie to me. I’m not dumb. I know exactly what she has arranged for