Chapter 174

Hearing Edward’s voice in my ear sends me back to the orphanage, when I would hide, while Edward would search through me throughout the house.

“Esther! Esther, where are you? Don’t make this harder than it needs to be, princess. This man will treat you nicely, you’ll see. It won’t be like the last one…”

I shiver. Before I even realize what I’m doing, I hang up the phone. Miles comes closer to me at once. He takes my face in his hands and forces up my gaze, looking deeply into his eyes.

He’s waiting for an explanation.

“That was Edward,” I tell him.

His face hardens in a flash and his teeth grit together.

Not long after, the phone begins to ring again. Miles lowers his hands away from my face, reaches around me, and answers the phone himself.

“This is Miles,” he says. As he listens, his face grows more and more steely, until he looks as serious as if he was staring down the barrel of a gun. “No. My assistants are competent, I assure you. They likely thought you were a prank caller. It’s not typical for one candidate to call the other like this.”

I swallow thickly, feeling exposed, like Edward is so close, even though he is safely on the other side of the phone, with Miles protectively between us.

“Yes, I understand you aren’t used to the political way of things, but perhaps it would behoove you to ask your advisors. I’m sure they would be happy to fill you in on the typical way of things.”

Miles listens again. “I understand. Well. Send the request through the usual channels, please, and we will find dates that work for us both. That’s fine. Goodbye.” Miles hangs up the phone.

My voice small, even to my own ears, I ask, “What did he want?”

Miles’s upper lip curls in disgust as he looks down at the phone. “To personally invite me to a debate.”

That’s not the way things are usually done. Challenges can be made of course, but usually they are announced the media, who then the other candidate talks to in response.

To speak privately feels… off.

“He tried to do that home, neighborly kind of bullshit attitude,” Miles says. “He’s so full of shit, I could tell just from listening to him. I know the real reason he called me. It’s the same reason he ended the conversation with son.”

Son! What a disrespectful thing to say to a fellow candidate. It meant that Edward was treating Miles like a child more than a competitor or a challenge.

“He called to try to unnerve you,” I say.

“He wanted to intimidate me,” Miles says, then scoffs. “I’ve done with political heavy hitters my entire life. If he thinks he’s going to intimidate me, he’s in for the shock of his life.”

The thought of Edward being so shocked that he straight up dies gives me an ill sort of satisfaction. It makes me uncomfortable, so I quickly shake my head, pushing away the thought.

It’s a silly little fantasy. The reality now, just like it’s always been, is that Edward is getting away with everything that he’s ever done. I, for one, have had more than enough of it.

“We need to get our hands on that blackmail,” I say, surprising Miles.

“I’m not sure that’s possible,” Miles says. “At least, not right now. If we could trip him up somehow, catching him off-guard in some way… I don’t know. We almost need him to confess before we can convince the police to move against him. That he’s a police candidate only makes everything messier.”

“Maybe that’s why he’s running,” I say. “To escape everything he’s done.” Even if the truth were to come out while he’s president, he could just pardon himself. He might get impeached from office, but even then, he wouldn’t go to jail if he’s pardoned.

God, I hate him.

“I want to talk to Daphne,” I say.

“Daphne?”

“His wife,” I say.

“You think she knows something?”

“She knows the same that I do,” I tell him.

Miles understands right away. “She was there too. God on earth, why would she marry him?”

“That’s one of the questions I want to ask. I want to help her, if I can.”

“Okay,” Miles says. “We’ll find a way… somehow. If we do this debate, you might have time to speak privately with Daphne. It wouldn’t be totally out of the blue for two candidates’ wives to be seen talking to each other.”

I nod. For now, that’s as good a plan as any, though it turns my stomach, thinking I might soon have to be in the same building, sharing the same air with that monster.

For Daphne, the girl I abandoned, I would do it though. She deserved at least that much from me, even if it was so long overdue.

She probably hates me. Maybe she has a right too.

Maybe I needed to go back to my therapist.

But first…

“If we want to stand a chance against Edward, then I need to tell you more.”

“You don’t have to,” Miles says.

“I want to,” Esther says. “It’s been such a burden, carrying it around for so long. You should know. And… Hugo too, if he means to help us.”

Miles doesn’t seem too happy about that, but he nods. “Very well. I’ll arrange it. We can talk to him tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I say.

Miles looks at me closer.

“What is it?” I ask.

He’s still angry, the glimmer of fury linters in his eyes and I suspect it will stay there for a very long time. Yet, beside that anger, is something else, something newer. Something like wonder.

“You are the strongest person I’ve ever met in my life. I’ve always thought so,” Miles says. “Yet still… Every time I think you might need my shoulder at last, you come back stronger.”

The compliment flatters me and takes away some of the pain. Miles is so good at making me forget how much I hurt.

“In part, it’s because of you,” I tell him.

“I didn’t do a damn thing,” he says. “Don’t you dare give me credit.”

“Being with you… makes me feel like I’m the best kind of person. Because that’s the only kind of person you would be with,” I explain. “You would never settle. You would never be with me because you feel bad. You see something in me that sometimes I can’t see for myself, but I’m trying to. I’m starting to.”

Miles wraps his arm around my waist. Gently, he leans in and kisses me.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, my worries remain. When we are done kissing, they might return. But for this moment, nothing exists but Miles and I and this unnamed, growing thing between us.

The kiss is soft and sweet and lingers, neither of us wanting to end this moment.

When it does finally end and Miles pulls back, he looks at me, fire in his eyes and says, “We are going to make that bastard pay.”

My own anger and passion matches Miles. I’ve been waiting a long time for vengeance. Never did I think I would actually attain it.

But with Miles at my side, maybe there’s hope.

First, though, we are going to have to face the monster, and that means I need to more fully face my past.