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“And…your father?”
I wasn’t sure why she was asking, but I shrugged. “I have no clue. If you remember, I don’t really talk to him anymore.”
Relief flashed in her expression. “Good. That’s good. I wouldn’t trust him if I were you.” Her expression darkenened. “I wouldn’t put anything past him. That man is an evil, evil man.”
I cocked my head. “What do you mean by that?”
She opened her mouth, then shut it and shook her head. “Just don’t trust him.”
I wasn’t planning on it, but hearing her say it made me even more suspicious. “What happened? Did he threaten you again?”
“No,” she insisted, then waved it off. “Forget I said anything.”
But I couldn’t forget it. I kept thinking about her words on the way home, even after I picked up Violet. What made it even more ironic was that my next visit of the day was from Carson.
“Before you slam the door in my face…” he rushed to say when I opened the door. “You need to hear something.”
And before waiting for me to respond, he immediately pulled out his phone and pressed a button. A recorded message began playing. I instantly recognized Nick’s voice, and my stomach sank lower and lower in my gut with every word.
“What if I told you that I’m doing all this and using your sister to get back at you? What if I told you that she’s just a pawn in my sick games? What then?”
He pressed another button to end the recording, a vindicated look apparent on his face. I tried to recover from the shock quickly, pushing my chin in the air and raising an eyebrow to hide my heart cracking and the pain that was stabbing every bit of my inside.
“So?” I asked.
“So?” Carson repeated incredulously. “Is that all you can say?”
“Oh, come on, Carson. We both know neither Nick nor I…neither of us is in this for feelings. He’s using me to piss you off, and I’m using him to get your dad off my back. It’s a win-win. Now, if that’s all you wanted to show me, I need to get back to work.”
Carson blinked at me in disbelief for a few seconds before shaking his head. “It’s like I don’t recognize you anymore. You’ve changed.”
I smiled. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. Goodbye, Carson.” And then I shut the door before I could begin bawling in his face.
A half-hour later, there was another knock on the door. I opened it without looking through the peephole, which turned out to be a big mistake.
It was Nick.
I had half a mind to slam the door in his face, but what if he was here to see Violet? I didn’t want to be the one to keep the man from his daughter. So, swallowing every single shard of hurt inside me, I pulled the door open a little wider.
“What the fuck have you done to me, woman?” he growled, sounding very displeased.
My temper sparked immediately. “Me? What on earth are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that I can’t stop thinking about you. Day and night. It’s this constant ache, a craving that won’t stop.”
Huh? What was he saying?
I had no clue what game he was playing, but I wasn’t in the mood for it, so I turned around.
“Violet is taking a—”
Before I could finish speaking, he grabbed my arm and then spun me back around to face him, staring into my eyes intensely.
“And what’s driving me even crazier is that I think I might be fucking falling in love with you.”
TWENTY-TWO
NICK
