Hadley was partying. Hanging out with the wrong crowd. Covering her grief with alcohol. She slept so much that Daisy was worried she might be getting into drugs.
“I hope so. I love her so much, but she doesn’t really want to hang out with me.”
Cash brushed his fingertips across her cheeks. “She’s just trying to find her way. I’m sure she’ll figure it out.”
“Where do you see yourself?” Tentativeness filled her voice.
A giant grin filled his face. “Playing pro, of course.” He rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling, threaded his fingers together over his hard-packed chest. “Or at least go as far as I can go. I want it so bad.”
She got brave enough to run her fingers over his shoulder. “I know you’ll make it. You’re amazing.”
He looked back at her. “Guess I will as long as I have my best friend rooting for me.”
TWENTY
DAISY
“What is this, Ethan?”She begged it where she stood in his home office, staring at a man she was supposed to love. Adore. But there was only uncertainty. Dread. A cavern of nothingness carved out between them.
It was her fault.
She never could fully fall. Could never fully give herself when there was a part of her that would forever belong to someone else.
Or maybe he’d just taken advantage of that.
Because Ethan looked at her as if she were insignificant. Stupid and pathetic. If she evaluated it, she knew he’d always looked at her that way, though. She just hadn’t cared enough to recognize it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“These.” She shook the stack of papers at him. Ones that documented the millions of dollars in his name. Money that she knew they shouldn’t have.
“I told you before I’m good at investments.” He turned back to his computer. It was the way he always ended a conversation.
“Not this good. I know something’s going on here. The way you won’t let me look at your phone. The way you don’t come home until the middle of the night.”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“None of my concern? I’m your wife.”
He was on his feet and across the floor in a flash. Backing her into a wall. His dark eyes had turned to pitch, and fear trembled down her spine.
He angled his head as something malicious suddenly poured from his mouth. “Yes, you’re my wife, which means you do what you’re supposed to do and keep your mouth shut.”
Disbelief escaped her lungs on a shock of air. “I won’t just ignore this.”
He reached up and fiddled with a lock of her hair, glancing at it before he turned his vicious gaze back to her. “Watch what happens if you don’t.”
A peal of giggles tore me from sleep, and I blinked open my eyes where I lay on my side. My stomach turned over with the nightmare. Nausea rolling through me, my heart thudding with the fear.
Ethan’s face behind my eyes and the million mistakes I made along the way taunting my mind.
I gasped for breath, trying to clear it. To refocus. To grab onto the safety that now surrounded us.
Morning light filtered in through the drapes, and I tuned my ear, trying to figure out why my children’s voices sounded different than they normally did.
Another riot of laughter echoed, and I shot upright when I realized those voices were coming from outside.
I tossed off my covers, shucking the sleep off as I jumped from bed and flew out the bedroom door and into the main room.
