“Glad you made it.” His hand reached out to take hers before his attention shifted to me. “The both of you,” he added, faint lines at the corners of his eyes softening, and again I was struck with this familiarity I couldn’t explain. “You must be Mallory.” His voice was smooth and cultured. He had this presence about him, exuding power. He was definitely a businessman used to giving orders and expecting them to be obeyed without question. “I’m Donovan Corvo.”
My heart fucking stopped, the world tilting.
Did he say Corvo?
No. Absolutely no fucking way.
My brain scrambled, synapses firing too fast, trying to catch up, trying to rearrange reality into a reasonable explanation.
Actually, I didn’t want it to make sense because there was no way my mother’s boyfriend was related to Maddox.
Right?
There were probably loads of Corvos in Elmwood. Surely. It could be his uncle.
My mouth went dry, tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth like sandpaper.
This wasn’t just bad. This was a nightmare. This was universe-imploding, reality-shattering, how-is-this-my-life bad.
“Mallory?” Mom’s voice cut in gently beside me, her hand touching my elbow as concern threaded through the warmth. “Honey?”
I blinked, forcing my face to move and not look like I’d just had the ground open beneath my feet and swallow me into hell. “Hi,” I managed, a strained smile on my lips. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” Even as I forced the pleasantry, I was concocting a plan to get me out of here. Fast. The best I could come up with on the fly was to fake being sick.
But before I started my pathetic charade of falling ill, a movement behind Donovan caught my focus. And I knew before seeing his face who it was.
Fuck. Me. Sideways.
My stomach plummeted at the sight of Maddox rounding the staircase.
32
MALLORY
Of course, he lived here.
This night couldn’t get any worse, and apparently, the universe had decided I hadn’t suffered enough already.
Dread pitted in my gut as Maddox stood behind his father, one shoulder braced against the wall, his gaze locked on mine, and I watched recognition slam into him. His whole body went rigid, and those eyes I’d been so hypnotized by darkened.
It couldn’t be clearer that I was the very last person he wanted to see.
Silence stretched between us.
“What are you doing here?” Maddox demanded, finally speaking, and completely ignoring the looks of confusion from our parents.
Mom’s gaze lingered on me, completely unaware of the bomb that had detonated in my chest, the nuclear fallout spreading through my nervous system.
“You know each other?” Donovan asked, lifting a brow.
I couldn’t do anything but stare at Maddox, my tongue completely impaired.
Mom’s eyes moved to Maddox. “I found him in my daughter’s room, actually.”
Mortified, my cheeks heated. Did she have to say it like that? I could only imagine the impression she was giving Donovan.
Donovan offered Mom an apologetic smile. “You’ll have to excuse my son. He seems to have lost all manners, not that he or his brothers have many to begin with. My fault, I’m afraid.”
“Hales—Mallory,” Maddox corrected with a scowl marring those lips I still dreamed about, “and I are lab partners. We’re working on a biology project together. Or we were.”
