My feetbarely stepped into the house, and what used to feel like mine no longer felt that way. I heard them even before I fully stepped inside. I should’ve called out or announced myself, allowing them a second to compose themselves if necessary.
I didn’t.
I was full of I should’ve…
However, if I’d given them a warning, then I’d never actually know what it looked like when I wasn’t there, and I needed to know. I needed to know that more than anything. Even if it finished me off. With purpose, I walked in quietly, and that was my first mistake.
I saw everything.
Her first, though.
Her back was to me, standing at the sink as if nothing in the world had changed. As if I hadn’t just clawed my way out of hell to get back to her. She was the only thing that kept me from snapping completely, and her looking normal felt like a betrayal.
I saw Kraven behind her. He stood way too fucking close. For a second, my brain didn’t process what I was seeing. It just stalled, refusing to register that this was real. My eyes dropped, glaring at his hand. It was on her stomach in a familiar and comfortable way, leading me to believe it had been there before.
Lots of times.
Something inside me turned cold when I’d been feeling nothing but heat and rage for the past month. It was the kind of cold that shot right through me with such force it almost knocked me on my ass.
I didn’t move.
I didn’t breathe.
Not wanting to disturb them.
If I did, I knew exactly what would happen next. I’d stomp across the kitchen, throwing his ass through the fucking wall, and I wouldn’t stop until nothing was left of him to touch her with. My body seized to the point of pain. Neither of them had seen me yet.
She didn’t feel me…
That realization was the hardest pill to swallow, and it gave me one more second to see the truth. She didn’t pull away, wanting his hands on her. The sharp twist in my chest was deep enough that it took a moment to recognize it for what it was.
It wasn’t just anger or rage. It was something far worse, something that felt a hell of a lot like being replaced. My breathing slowed instead of sped up. It was the only way I was going to get through what happened next without losing my shit.
My vision tunneled as he stated, “You know what they say: it’s a thin line between love and hate.”
It was what I needed, jerking me back to the present as I spewed, “I guess that’s one way you can put it, motherfucker.”
Hearing my sharp tongue, Isla jumped, but Kraven wasn’t caught off guard like she was. My hands curled into fists at my sides. Every muscle in my body went tight, coiled, ready to snap.
Yet still, I didn’t move an inch. He hadn’t broken eye contact, and neither had I. The silence stretched too long. Everything that needed to be said between us was already there without having to say one word. He put me in jail, and now he stood behind her like he had a right to be there—like he’d earned it, and I’d lost it.
“So this is what I come home to?” I announced. A humorless laugh almost came out of me, but I swallowed it down.
Isla’s composure changed almost instantly. My question yanked her out of whatever daze she was in, and it did the same thing to me. It was how I noticed she was wearing one of my shirts, calming me down almost immediately.
I was there with her…
She shook her head, smiling for a second before running into my arms. I didn’t think twice about welcoming her into them. Kraven grimaced, not trying to hide it. I picked her up off the ground, closing my eyes to take her in completely. I’d been waiting for this for the past month. She was no longer mad at me for leaving her. I felt it in the way she was clinging to me.
I didn’t want Kraven to ruin this moment between us, so I did what came naturally. I flicked him off, then carried her up the stairs to my bedroom.
Fuck him.
She was all that mattered, and I’d deal with him later. He didn’t object, though a huge part of me expected him to. She wrapped her legs around my waist, letting me have my way with her.
“God,” she muttered on our way up the stairs, “I missed you so much.”
It was music to my ears.
