Carina rolled her bright blue eyes. “That’s what Dimitri is for.”
“Dimitri can’t get her out of a murder charge!”
My mother held up her freshly sanitized hands. “Murder? Wait!”
Jane rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet as she held her hands out to my mother. They cared about the conversation, but probably cared about the baby more. I didn’t blame them, I was sure the thing was much cuter than me. Jane rubbed the hand sanitizer in and held her hands out. “I will help anyone if I can hold the baby!”
Carina blinked out of whatever murderous tirade she was on and smiled at the teenager. “Of course, honey!”
She scooped the little bundle wrapped in pink and handed it right over to the small adult. “This is Gemma.”
Ace was on the edge of his seat, practically waiting for something to happen so he could dive forward and save his precious daughter. I wondered if that was why he looked like he hadn’t slept in a hundred years.
“Poppy isn’t going to go after Donovan tonight,” my mother announced as she watched Jane with Gemma.
“How do you know?” Carina finally looked away from me and watched my mother with her brows together in the middle of her forehead.
“Because she’s meeting with the grannies,” my mother shrugged as if this was completely normal.
“What?” Ace and I said at the same time.
Our mother smiled as if she had keys to all of the secrets in this family, and honestly… she probably did. “Poppy called me and asked me for my mother’s phone number before she left the party tonight.”
Jane narrowed her eyes. “But she told me she was spending the night with Donovan!”
My mother ran her hand over the back of Jane’s head affectionately. “I think that was the plan, but plans change. My mother wouldn’t tell me why they set up a meeting tonight, and Poppy wouldn’t disclose much either. We will just need to wait and see.”
Carina plopped down dramatically next to her husband and threw her hands in the air. “I hate waiting, but at least we are all together!”
Ace’s shoulders only curved in more. The poor man needed sleep, and he knew that was the last thing he was going to get here. “Why don’t you go take a nap in my room?” I suggested.
He perked up, and my mother scowled. “If anyone is going to take a nap, it’s the woman that pushed out a seven and a half pound baby last week.”
Ace blew out a breath and leaned back on the couch. Ah, so that was why he was exhausted. No one believed Ace deserved rest, too. “Has Ace been helping you?”
Carina nodded enthusiastically. “Of course. He gets up and gives her to me in the middle of the night for feedings and takes her with him in the morning so I can sleep in. He holds her and puts her back to sleep while he drinks coffee.”
I shot a look at my mother. “I think Ace is deserving of some self-care then.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
Poppy
The grannies heldmartini glasses but didn’t bother with sipping from them. They seemed more for show than anything else. Men gyrated and paraded themselves around with thongs that barely concealed anything. It was an odd place for them to invite me for dinner, and I didn’t know how I felt about it, but at least I was away from the chaos of wedding planning that I hardly had anything to do with. At least I was away from Donovan. I thought for sure these women knew how to get rid of a body, but I didn’t know how to go about asking. They seemed to be dangerous, but maybe I was wrong. A part of me wanted to be wrong and right. I needed them.
“Your father,” Grandmother’s—as she insisted she be called— eyes skipped over the men milling about. “Was not a good man.”
This was a very odd place to have this conversation. Chips and salsa were placed between us by a very tan, oiled-up man. I didn’t know if it was appropriate to look at his body or the barely there thong. I didn’t know where to put my eyes. I wanted to be anywhere else. We could have done this at a coffee shop.
Nana—who would also not disclose her real name—pinched her bright red lips together before setting her martini on the table. “We need you to understand that your father had planned to sell you to the Maddens and not for marriage. Your brothers made the agreement… not so barbaric.”
I reared back. “Excuse me?”
“We not only have the correspondence between them, but we also have the documents. You were to be sold off to the highest bidder.” Grandmother leaned back in her chair and watched me with careful eyes.
“Your virginity, of course,” Nana clarified.
I blinked. My virginity?
