After five days, he went to attend a meeting outside the house, and I sat there in the evening wondering what I was doing. I needed to make plans, needed to face reality that this position was going to come to an end, and I wouldn’t be in Paradise any longer.
Nothing was real if Jameson couldn’t be real with me, and I needed that more than anything to stay.
I was sulking in the hall when Franny rounded the corner, squealing at me. “My momma was here today … in her room.”
“What?” I glanced around immediately, that feeling of being watched from the forest back with force, but I tried to be rational. “Honey, what room?”
“The room next to Daddy’s, silly. It’s my momma’s room. In case she ever comes home, Daddy said.”
“But, baby … your momma being home … that’s not possible.” I got down on one knee with my heart racing, my pulse thumping at the idea that Franny thought she was seeing her mother when I knew the truth. Jameson hadn’t told her about her mother passing, and I’d have to be the one to do so if he didn’t do so soon enough.
“Of course it is. She’s as pretty as she always was, Mia.” Her smile was so happy, so genuine, that I started to get concerned.
“Is your mommy still here?”
“Yep. In her room.”
And then Archer rounded the corner, and his face said it all. It looked as if he’d seen a ghost. “Archer?”
“Jameson is on his way. He said for you to stay here.”
But then Lex Knight appeared just down the hall.
And I lost my breath.
My whole world tilted, throwing me off it.
She was freaking stunning. In every way I wasn’t. Long blonde hair that had a perfect wave, which framed her angular face. So symmetrical, with high cheekbones and full lips that were painted bloodred to match the red dress she wore. I saw where Franny got her nose, her cheeks, her body frame.
She was perfect, but in a vicious way.
“Mia Darling, come have a drink with me.” She said my name like Satan might have said Eve’s name. With a lure of sweetness laced with the risk of death.
“Archer, take Franny to play outside,” I told him. Lex may be Franny’s mother, but that girl had my heart, and I wouldn’t let anyone, even her mom, hurt her if I could help it.
“Mia,” he warned, but when I looked at him, he knew I meant it. And I hoped he saw the concern in my eyes, saw that we protected Franny at all costs.
“Please.” In that moment, I saw Archer choose between his boss and me. He held out his hand to Franny, and she took it to skip away with him.
“Be careful. Xavier’s there, but … be careful.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as I watched them retreat down the hallway.
“She’s growing up so quickly, isn’t she?” Lex said as if she’d been with her daughter every single day since she was born, like she hadn’t left at all. “Shall we?” She raised a brow at me and then turned on her red-bottom heels to walk toward that room, toward the one door he’d never opened for me.
And so I walked, one step at a time—my heart beating, my knees shaking, my world crumbling—to that room.
She didn’t wait for me but left the door cracked open. And still I froze there, my heart pounding as my eyes caught on the intricate carvings swirling like vines around the knob, coiling toward the keyhole like they’d been guarding this secret.
My fingers trembled as I pushed the door open, and the smell of patchouli and jasmine with a hint of citrus hit me. It was the type of perfume that lingered, stuck, and embedded on a place and never let go.
It smelled of her and not at all of me.
I stepped in, slow and deliberate, and her dark eyes met mine from across the room. She sat at a window seat, an oak table next to her with another empty chair across from that, waiting for me. The window was open, a breeze billowing through the white curtain as if to distract me from the dread that had slithered up my spine.
I heard Franny giggling outside, and Lex pointed to the chair. “Come and sit. Do you like tea?”
I glanced around to see if Xavier was anywhere to be found, but I didn’t see him. “I don’t bite, Mia,” she informed me as if my waiting in the doorway was rude.
