Page 266

I wished she could have been there. I wished she could have seen how much my little boy had grown, heard the things he said, watched the way his entire face lit up when he got excited.

That ache never completely disappeared, but I was grateful that Kaidence had two grandmothers who loved him enough to spoil him rotten and then hand him right back to me full of sugar.

I hugged Kaidence one more time, reminded him to behave, and gave Henrietta another warning about the candy that she absolutely was not going to listen to… then I headed home to finish getting ready.

And now here I was, standing in the middle of my mansion wearing a dress I had once thrown away, waiting for a man I hadn’t physically seen in six years to somehow make an appearance.

My life was really some crazy-ass shit.

I looked down at myself and had to admit that I looked damn good.

Earlier that morning, I had gotten a long, bone-straight black wig installed. The stylist had parted it perfectly down the middle and laid every strand until the sleek hair fell well past my waist. My nails were long and glossy black, nothing overly extravagant, just elegant enough to complement the look without distracting from it. Closer to the evening, I had my makeup professionally done with smoky black shadow, dark liner, long lashes, and a deep red lip that pulled everything together perfectly.

By the time I slipped into that dress, even I had to stand in front of the mirror for a second.

I could have passed for Morticia Addams’s twin… a slightly darker version, considering I had caramel skin… and with a much fatter ass.

I laughed to myself.

Caspian would have loved this shit.

That man used to tell me I could put on a trash bag and still make it look expensive, but I knew exactly what he would have said if he saw me tonight. First, he would have told me to turn around. Then he would have told me to turn around again, slower that time. After that, he probably would have spent the next ten minutes trying to convince me that we didn’t really need to go to the party after all.

The thought made me smile.

I missed him so much, but that night, for the first time in years, thinking about Caspian didn’t bring that same crushing sadness with it because I was expecting him.

I didn’t know how he planned on showing himself. I didn’t know when it would happen, what he would look like, or whether anyone else would be able to see him when he did. All I knew was that a few nights earlier, I had heard Caspian’s voice as clearly as I heard anybody else’s, and he had told me to come find him at the party.

I had done my part.

I showed up.

“There’s my sister!”

I turned at the sound of Willow’s voice and watched her weave her way toward me with a drink in one hand and her phone in the other.

That girl looked good.

She had gone all in on the sexy vampire idea, wearing a fitted black dress that hugged every curve, a dramatic cape, dark makeup, and a pair of fake fangs she had apparently underestimated because she kept taking them out every time she wanted to drink something.

I looked her up and down when she reached me. “Well, look at you.”

She smiled proudly. “Thank you, thank you.”

I glanced around at the packed mansion. “Girl, I didn’t know you planned on bringing the whole damn Hallowridge out tonight.”

She laughed. “I told you it was gonna be grand!”

“Grand? Bitch, there are so many people in here, I don’t even know who half of them are. I’ve been smiling at people for forty-five minutes hoping somebody eventually says their name.”

“That’s because you been gone too long.”

“I have not been gone long enough to forget this many damn people.”

Willow laughed and looked around proudly at what she had created. “It’s nice, though, isn’t it?”

I let my gaze move through the room again before smiling. “It is, sis. You did a really good job.”