“Oh, you know, I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.”
“Really?The Godfather? What are you, in the Mafia now?”
Carter chokes from where he’s sitting in the corner of the room. “No, I wouldn’t go withMafiaper se but—”
Oh, he’s really going to get it when I’m healed.
“Anyway!” I take Blanche's hand, kissing her knuckles one by one until I get to her wedding band. The visual representation of our union is calming in a way I’ve never known. “It’s taken care of, darling. I’m yours, and you’re mine. For all eternity.”
“Then tell me what happened to you, please.”
“I…I don’t remember.”
“That’s true! He really doesn’t remember!”
God, I could kill him.“Carter, what are you even still doing here?”
He holds his hands up in surrender as Blanche places her hand on my face and pulls my attention back to her. “The only other place you told me you were going after the meeting with the Taranovs was to your parents' house to tell them and…Oh. Oh my God. It’s your dad, isn’t it?”
I can’t move, can’t breathe as she looks at me with a mix of horror and pity. “Blanche…”
“Your father did this, didn't he?”
I don’t respond. I can’t. How do I admit that to anyone? That I’m a grown-ass thirty-five-year-old who still lets his father beat him up? Especially mywife. She’ll never see me as a man again if she knows.
“Didn’t he, Henry?”
“Blanche—”
“It was him the last time too, wasn’t it?”
When I still don’t answer, she shoots up from the bed, making her way out the door. “If you don’t want to tell me, I’ll go ask himmyself!”
I try to get up and follow her, but fuck,I can’t move. “Carter?”
John races after her, catching her right as she’s about to leave the room. “You can’t, Blanche, he’ll kill you. Trust me, it’s best to just let it be.”
“Please, love…” I reach out my hands, hoping with everything I have that she’ll fill them. “Come back to bed. Stay with me? Please? I want my family with me right now…”
My little firecracker only hesitates momentarily as she looks back and forth between John and me before conceding. She makes her way back to me with a soft smile, this time taking off her shoes and joining me under the sheets.
“I’ll stay with you,” she whispers, lacing her fingers into my hand and laying it on her lower stomach. “We both will.”
Sensing the gravity of the moment, Carter nods his head. “I’ll leave you to it. He’s all yours now, Blanche.”
“I’ll take good care of him,” she answers, with her eyes locked on mine.
I certainly can’t do all the things I would like to do with my wife, but I’m not in so much pain that I can’t kiss her perfect lips. It’s soft, full of gentle passion and love. We both know it can’t escalate, but for once in my life, I don’t need it to. The intimacy of my hand resting on our child is heaven. With my family safe in my arms, I feel like there may be salvation for my soul after all.
Chapter thirty-two
The calm I feel as I approach the gates to the Sinclair Estate is unnatural, and although I’m happy with the steadiness of my heart rate, it’s somewhat concerning that I’m not more affected by what I’m about to do.
I wasn’t thrilled when Henry’s father called, summoning me for tea and demanding that I tell nobody where I was going. The old man is despicable. I’ve known that for a while, but seeing my husbandon the brink of deathlast week shifted something inside me forever. Rage I’ve never known boiled over, hot and heady, and it’s been simmering since. I had planned to ignore the message and deal with the fallout of ignoring Henry Sinclair Sr. whenever it came. But now I have the perfect outlet for my rage.
Parking my car at the front of the drive, I wait for the front door to open, but no butler appears. Fear sweeps through me as I consider for the first time that I may have been brought here to be disposed of. If he’s sent the staff away, and no one is aware that I’m here…It’s too late to back out now, Blanche. Steelingmyself, I make my way down the familiar route that Henry taught me.
“This should be the grand hall to the office,” he’d said, promising that we would renovate everything to its classic glory, banishing this gaudy white mess to nothing but a distant memory. My prompt arrival pays off, and I have a moment alone in the office to plant my surprise and wait for my victim. If I’m lucky, plan A will be successful, and I won’t have to resort to less savory methods.
