Chapter 76

The couches in Miles’s office might look very flush, but it’s a ruse. The padding is hard as a rock. Even with the cushion of Miles around me, holding me as I rest against his chest, the parts of me that touch the cushion – my elbow, my thigh – might as well be sitting on concrete.

We’re clothed enough now to not worry about who might walk in. Miles still has my panties in his pocket, but my skirt is pushed back down.

The bliss of the afterglow has come and gone by now, but I’m still enjoying Miles’s closeness and way he’s holding me so tenderly, like I’m something precious.

I want to compliment Miles for killing me and then bringing me back, but he’s smug enough, smirking like he’s the cat who caught the canary.

I sigh because, honestly, he’s earned the right to be smug.

Eventually, though, even those good feelings fade, and I remember everything else that has happened tonight that led up to me coming here. Unfortunately, those memories are not as warm and fuzzy as everything that happened after.

Miles must feel me stiffen in his embrace.

“Are you ready to talk now?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “It’s not easy.”

“Take your time,” he says.

So I do, starting with what happened when he dropped me off at my house and ending with me driving away from my parents’ house tonight. He’s quiet the entire time, though his muscles tense when I relay what my father said to me.

“I don’t feel like I’m part of the family anymore,” I admit to him. “And I want to be. They saved me, adopting me like they did. I could be anywhere right now, some terrible place, maybe, but they took me in and helped me become the woman I am today.”

Miles listens quietly for a while. When I pause, not sure how to continue, he prompts, “You really think you’d be in a bad place?”

“Yes,” I tell him. “Before I was adopted… I was moved around a lot. Foster care to foster care. At best, I was ignored. At worst… some people found crying to be a nuisance.”

“Crying? How old were you then?”

“Three,” I say.

Miles curses under his breath.

“When Mom and Dad found me and took me in, I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. They cared about me. We did things together. They hung my A+ tests up on the fridge.”

“I’m sorry,” Miles says. “I have no idea how they could change so much.”

I do, though it hurts me. “They’d thought they lost Thea. When they got her back… I couldn’t really expect things to stay as they were…” I wince at how selfish that sounds. “Not that I would want them to, of course. Thea’s disappearance was a weight on us all, and it’s a daily blessing that she’s back with us.”

“You still shouldn’t be ignored,” Miles says.

“I’m thirty-five,” I say, trying to be strong. “I need to get over this. I don’t need my parents’ approval anymore.”

This is true. I am an independent woman now, ready to make my way forward in the world. And yet… Somewhere inside of me is that little girl who wants to please the people who saved her. That little girl seemed to come out whenever my parents were being cruel.

“So, Thea…” Miles says, redirecting our conversation. “Do you truly believe she is pregnant?”

I blink. “I… don’t know. Why would she lie?” I lift away to look into his face. His features are stern, lost in concentration again. “Do you know something?”

“No,” he says. “If she is pregnant, what if the baby isn’t Garnar’s?”

I tilt my head a little. “You can’t just go making accusations, Miles.”

“I’m not trying to,” he says and offers me a small smile. “I just don’t trust her. She has her own angles here, and I can’t figure them out just yet.”

“Well, when you do, let me know,” I say, and snuggle down against him once more.

He kisses the top of my head. “I will. I promise.”

It’s around then that my stomach grumbles – loudly.

Miles pulls back this time. “Hungry? Did you eat anything tonight?”

“I was supposed to eat at my parents,” I tell him. With the afterglow gone and my worries subsided, my hunger is starting to return with a vengeance.

Chuckling lightly, he nudges me forward. “Come on. I’ll take you to dinner.”

I look at him. “Didn’t you have to work all night tonight?”

His gaze dashes to the side, looking guilty as hell.

“Miles!”

“I wanted to show you my desk,” he says.

Heat burns in my face, and though I smack his arm lightly in scolding, I’m eternally grateful that he did.

Miles packs up and we leave the capital together. Miles suggests a nice restaurant within walking distance so we head there. Yet just before we reach it, a voice calls out from behind us.

“Miles!”

We turn to see Amber approach. Despite her recent unemployment, she looks more or less the same. Her hair is up in a top knot. Her jacket is tailored with a purple scarf around the collar.

She looks between us as she comes closer, but she only addresses Miles. “You haven’t been returning my calls.”

“Don’t make this awkward, Amber,” Miles says. “Esther and I are just going to dinner.”

“Even after what she did to me?” Amber scoffs. A sliver of hatred slashes through her eyes as she looks at me. It’s gone when she glances back to Miles.

“Stop playing games,” Miles says flatly. “I spoke to Hugo. I’ve seen Esther’s scans. I know the truth of what happened.”

This reminds me that I still haven’t asked Miles what he said to Hugo when he called to ask about me that day. I’m curious, but I’m not about to bring that up right now in front of Amber.

“Be grateful Esther didn’t press charges against you,” Miles says. “And leave us be.”

“So that’s it, then?” Amber asks. “Our whole friendship over for one mistake?”

“Not one mistake. Several,” Miles says. “I told you, over and over again, to leave Esther alone, but you kept pushing. Our friendship is over, Amber, but you only have yourself to blame.”

Amber’s vicious gaze slid to me once more, but this time, Miles stepped physically in front of me, blocking me from it. From her.

“Get out of here, Amber. And if I hear you so much as walk down the same sidewalk as Esther again, I’ll make you wish you haven’t.”

“You’ve changed, Miles,” Amber spits. Her vitriol seems to now be shared with him and not just directed at me.

“I’m not the only one,” Miles says. “Now. Leave. Before I flag down my secret service.”

Immediately I glance to our left and right, and yeah, now that he’s said that, I can see the men in suits subtly following us, or the group in a dark SUV parked on the street.

I suppose as a Congressman, Miles would have protection. As a presidential candidate, he might have even more.

“This doesn’t end here,” Amber says, even as she backs away.

The words – the threat – rattle me, and I feel shaken long after she has disappeared down the street.