“What’s wrong?”
I opened my mouth but no words came out, instead I began to sob.
“Hey, you’re okay.” Sylas reached out and for a minute I thought he was going to pull me onto his lap like he had so many times, but instead, he hesitated and patted my arm before pulling back. “Why are you up so early?”
“You didn’t come home!” I accused. “Youleftme!”
Sylas looked away with an exhausted sigh. “Of course, I came home, Paul. I’m right here, aren’t I?”
Okay, logically I knew he had a point but what the hell?
“Have you been out here all night?” I tried to force the accusation from my tone.
“Since about two,” he said quietly.
“Were you locked out? Why didn’t you knock?”
“I have my keys, Paul,” he said, skirting the question.
“You didn’t come to bed,” I mumbled. “I was worried.”
“I just wasn’t tired.”
Yeah, well, the dark purple bags under his bloodshot eyes saidthatwas a lie.
“It’s me, isn’t it?” I had to force back a whimper when he didn’t respond. “I’m sorry.”
When he still didn’t speak, I walked back to the door. Blinded by the tears building in my eyes, I had to grope for the knob before I was finally able to open it and slip through to make my escape.
In the shower, I let the tears flow. The fear and anxiety of the night before was replaced by the unimaginable pain of my heart shattering. I stayed under the stream of steaming water until it began to cool and then forced myself to flick the water off and get dressed. Moving methodically, I collected my prenatal vitamins and the other supplements that the doctor had recommended and dropped them on the bed, followed by neat stacks of my clothes, and then the basic toiletries I needed. I left the spa bath stuff that Sylas had given me on my birthday behind on the shelf in the shower.
Within the hour, I had everything I’d arrived in Sylas’s life with packed into my car. With the exception of the car seat that he’d bought for my baby -I couldn’t even bear to think of him by Sylas’s silly nickname of Bun- I left everything else that Sylas had purchased behind and left a hastily scrawled check for one-hundred thousand dollars to cover the cost of the car and my room and board on the kitchen table, weighted down by an empty coffee mug.
Taking one last look around, I saw through the window that Sylas hadn’t moved, he was still sitting in the same spot and staring off into the distance. Ignoring the clenching in my gut, I pulled the two house keys off my key ring and carefully placed them on the check, along with the ring that Sylas had put on my finger so many weeks before and walked out the front door.
It wasn’t until I was backing out of the driveway that I realized that I had absolutely no idea where to go.
Chapter Forty-Three
Sylas
I knew I’d screwed up by not responding to Paul, but what the hell was I supposed to say? We both knew he wasn’t the problem. I mean, even if he had been able to look past the monster hiding inside me, how could anyone blame him for recoiling from me once he knew what my dishonesty had driven my wife to? There was no one to blame for the loss of those three lives but me and I sure as hell wasn’t deserving of kindness or forgiveness. Knowing that and making myself let go of the Omega that had quickly become the center of my world were two completely different things.
I heard him moving around in the house and sighed. No matter what the situation between us was, he was still carrying and because I was too much of a chicken to ask if I was still welcome in his bed to sleep, he hadn’t had any physical contact with an Alpha in twenty-four hours. Shoving myself to my feet, I walked through the back door and cringed when the scent of despair overwhelmed me. It was worse than I’d thought.
Of course, it wasn’t until I saw his wedding ring and house keys lying on a check from his investment account that I realized just howmuchworse.
A glance out the front window showed his SUV missing from the driveway and a quick tour through the house showed that Paul had only taken the bare minimum of his things, leaving behind everything he had acquired while staying with me, even Bun’s things, so maybe I was overreacting and he was coming back?
Then I saw it, the leather-bound baby book I’d started for him was still on his nightstand, but the ultrasound image was gone from the cover.
Paul wasn’t coming back and there was no chance that his deadbeat relatives had already been arrested. If he was going to be safe, I was going to have to find him.
Pulling my cellphone from my pocket, I started with Drey only to find that he hadn’t heard from Paul since the day before. He promised to let me know if that changed and disconnected, but before I could pull up my contact list for the next call, Chuck’s number was flashing on the screen.
“Is he there?” I snapped, already heading for my truck keys.
“Not yet,” Chuck huffed back, his anger barely contained. “He just called to ask if he can rent a room until he has the baby. What the fuck, Sylas? Why am I suddenly running a Howard Johnsons?”
