“It’s not me who messed up. It was your brother.Isyour brother,” Cinder continued to rant.
I watched Donovan’s profile, and he was gritting his jaw. As he put the car in drive, he spoke. “You’re not going to like what I have to say so I’m going to lead with it. Magnum is spending the night there with Blake.”
“What?” Cinder screeched from the back seat.
I now understood why Donovan had waited until he was driving to speak. If she could, she’d run back inside the house and drag Magnum out. I could sense every one of her painful emotions in my nerve endings. I was so hot, it felt as though I’d spiked a fever.
Donovan took a quick moment to run a hand through his hair. My own fingers itched to comfort him in some way. I didn’t know when this change inside me happened, but it had. Another habit, or feeling, or I didn’t know what to call it, that I had to squash. Quickly.
“We are going to stay with you, and then tomorrow, return and do the transfer. Then, we need to speak to the Minister about Blake and bringing her back.”
“Fuck off, Don. Just take the kid. I will raise her. She’s clearly adorable and smart and has stolen the hearts of everyone. She loves Mag and she will love me. Ceci will be sure of it.”
“It’s not that simple,” I’d started to say when Donovan interrupted.
“This is a child, and while she’s clearly way more attached to my brother than I ever understood, we can’t just take her.”
I risked a quick glance at Cinder, who was sitting with her arms across her chest like a forlorn child, and I reminded myself she didn’t deserve any of this either. She hadn’t known that the man she loved was having a torrid affair in the States and had a child he was deeply invested in. All this being said, she didn’t get to just rip the aforementioned child from her mother’s arms.
“I’m in charge,” Donovan said authoritatively but not forcefully. “This is the plan. Dinner, go to bed, transfer, call the Minister, and proceed.”
It bruised me somewhere deep that Donovan wasn’t advocating to skip the transfer, yet I sat in the car, wondering if thego to bedpart in his list included us together… I wanted that more than I cared to admit. Although, my wishing for a forever with Donovan was something I would never own up to.
Donovan
Hitting mute on the phone, I let a growl escape my chest. My mom was on a bender, and it wasn’t a particularly good one. Were they ever positive? It didn’t matter in this moment, because dear Mommy wanted all of this done yesterday and wasn’t particularly pleased about Magnum staying at Valerie’s. She’d heard about the arrangement from Cinder, who had quickly locked herself in her hotel room, saying she’d be out in the morning, and called her soon-to-be mother-in-law.
Which led to now, and my being stuck on the phone with an extremely angry and hostile Ceci.
Still on mute, I roared again, silently reminding myself about my Hawaii plan. It couldn’t come soon enough. The second I restored order to my family where Rubia was concerned, I’d be on my way to Hawaii. I needed to put distance between myself and the entire lot of Rubians and their rules.
Except it might be nice to harbor one to keep me warm, sleep by my side, challenge me…but it wasn’t possible.
Back to reality, my mother was still yakking away on the phone—Blake would come to Rubia, Valerie would stay in Florida, Magnum must obey, and Tuvy would damn well perform. It was a long list ofwouldsand musts, not acouldormaybe think aboutmuttered. My mom and Ezza operated in a world of what everyone was expected to do, and there was no consideration for anyone else’s feelings.
As I was about to hit unmute and let my mother know I was handling it all, there was a soft knock on the door.
Swinging my door open, Tulya stood in front of me, a tumbler of scotch in one hand and a tender smile on her face.You okay?She mouthed the question, not knowing the call was on mute.
I nodded and waved her to come in, although I had better ideas for when it came to my bedroom and Tulya.
She handed me the tumbler, and I said, “God bless you, mute,” pointing to the phone. With a wink and a slug of the scotch, I hit a button and went back to my call. “Mom, listen, I got this. It’s all going to be resolved. I know Cinder is mad, but in order to make this all happen, I had to make sure both Valerie and Blake stay put. Valerie is slippery, and the only way to keep her nearby is Magnum.”
My mom continued to drone on. “Why wouldn’t you just do it all today?”
Grateful the phone wasn’t on speaker, since Tulya had lain back on the chaise, my mind went to a better place—Tulya and myself, no clothes, sheets.
Despite the phone being near my ear, I hit the lower volume button; no need for Tulya to hear my mother talk down to me. I swallowed my pride and answered my mother.
“Because—because Blake is just a kid, Mom. And she’s unique and special, and we need to take our time when it comes toher.” For a quick second, my heart ached over leaving Blake for Hawaii. I shooed away the feeling. It was absurd. I’d only just met her, and beyond her being my brother’s daughter, we didn’t have a bond.
“Well, get it done tomorrow and hurry back. The sooner we have this situated, the sooner we can deal with your engagement. Again, I can’t understand why you allowed your brother to get engaged first, but I bet you’re rethinking it now. You’re the head of the family and will stay in a prominent position.”
“Enough about me.”
I had to end this discussion. There was no way I could sit on the phone any longer and discuss Emelee, who my mother wanted me to marry, with Tulya close by. It was the first time I’d thought about her by name since the holiday party. I didn’t know why, but now when Emelee entered my mind, I despised her even more than before. Until a week ago, she was nothing more than a hinderance of my mother’s. She was only ashe, not a real person named Emelee. Now, she was a rival of Tulya’s…sort of, and I hated that. For Tulya or me, I wasn’t sure.
“I’ll get this all done. I have it under control,” I said before disconnecting the call. Looking up I caught sight of the most beautiful woman I’d ever known, staring at me with raw need in her eyes. It should have made me feel dishonorable, but when it came to Tulya, every rule I knew dissolved.
