“Careful, baby,” I murmur, catching a cushion before it topples over on her.
She beams up at me, curls wild and cheeks flushed.“It’s the strongest castle in the world!”
I force a smile I’m not feeling, my chest aching as I watch her.Because she is perfect.My perfect girl.And now Maverick knows about her.The thought alone makes me want to throw up.
After dinner, Ivy curls against me on the couch like she always does, Bun-Bun squished between us, chattering about school.Her words blur together until she yawns mid-sentence, eyelids drooping.
I carry her to bed, tucking her in with Bun-Bun clutched tight in her arms.She mumbled sleepily, “Night, Mommy.I love you.”
“Love you more,” I whisper, brushing her curls out of her face.
She is asleep within minutes, her little chest rising and falling steadily.I sit there for a long time, watching her, guilt pressing down so heavily it feels like it might crush me.I promised myself I’d protect her from pain, from chaos, from the storm Maverick carried everywhere he went.But maybe I’d only bought us time because the storm has found us anyway.
I leave her room when my phone buzzes, only checking it once I’m back in my room because I’m afraid to see who it is.
Ethan:I hope you’re okay.Let me take you and Ivy out this weekend.Just us.A family.
The words blur on the screen.A family.Something we aren’t.My fingers hovered but didn’t move.Because even if Ethan is steady and safe, everything I want on paper ...the truth is already loose.Maverick knows the truth now, and he won’t be kept at bay for long.
And no matter how hard I try, I can’t picture a future that doesn’t have his shadow in it.
I set the phone facedown and crawl into bed, staring at the ceiling as the darkness presses in, not replying to Ethan’s message.
“I’ll protect you,” I whisper into the silence, as if Ivy can hear my promise from her room.“No matter what it takes.”
But even as I say it, I know the ground is shifting under me.
Because Maverick Hall isn’t the kind of man who lets go once he has the truth.And now he has it.
Chapter Eleven
Becoming A Better Man
Maverick
I don’t know how many cigarettes I burn through during the night.Too many.My throat is raw, my knuckles bruised from the wall I’d punched, my entire body wired and aching with the kind of fury that doesn’t let up even when exhaustion claws at your bones.
