Page 62 of Lethal Weakness

Chapter Twenty-Two

Linden

“So, what were the results?” I ask Merrill before she can force me out the door.

It’s been a week since the last bullshit mandatory grandparent visit, and I’m no happier today than I was last time. At least I could spend the day mentally preparing, though. Attempting anyway.

Her mouth purses in that way she does when she’s forced to interact with me. “Avery’s blood was perfectly normal. No negative indicators.”

“Good.”

“Little Avery is a perfect specimen; you should feel very lucky,” she says, just as she closes the door in my face.

What the fuck? The perfect specimen?

She acts as if she did me a favor by getting knocked up by her son. As if it hasn’t been the most traumatizing few years of my life.

She’s right though; Avery is perfect. She makes my life worth living.

The way Merrill said it rubs me the wrong way though, and I find it hard to leave once I’m sitting in my car.

If I go home, I’ll just sit in silence for 90 minutes before it’s time to turn around and come back.

Jack’s been avoiding me since I deflowered him last week, but I don’t blame him. He doesn’t do emotions, so he definitely doesn’t want to get attached.

He might be able to stay objective when sex gets involved, but I certainly can’t.

I don’t know what possessed me to fuck him in the first place.

No, that’s not true. His unending kindness to me and my daughter is what had me stripping my clothes off for him.

Part of me is embarrassed, but I’m a grown adult. If I want to have meaningless sex with my hot neighbor, then who cares.

Pfft. Can’t even lie to myself about that one.

It wasn’t meaningless, but I need to get my head on straight. The road to happiness leads straight out of Twinflower, and that means away from Jack. As soon as I can get things in order, we’re out of here.

I’m just not sure how long that will take.

I hold my phone up to my ear, playing the recording that I took last week before I barged into the mansion. I have the entire confession of Merrill taking Avery’s blood without my consent.

It won’t solve much, but I hope it at least gives me a little bit of ground back in case the Scotts attempt anything shady involving custody again.

You can’t trust them.

My thoughts go back to Jack, as they do quite regularly these days, but I still can’t get his warning out of my head.

Why would he be so adamant to warn me about them if he didn’t know them personally?

I glance around the front lawn, searching for the security guards that cover the expansive property.

They all seem to be wearing black pants and black-collared shirts, nothing crazy. Definitely no masks though.

It has been a while since I’ve seen my masked man; maybe it was a fluke.

My masked man. What the hell is wrong with me?

Still, as the sun dips below the horizon and shadows fill the courtyard, I look for him. I search the corners that no one is supposed to see, along the towering brick walls where the rose bushes grow.