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Every time I thought it couldn’t get any worse, fate seemed to show me that it indeed could.
“Yes.”His reply was so quiet that I almost didn’t hear him.
I pulled my hands free of his and stepped back, finally lifting my eyes to meet his.There were no other words I could say.Nothing else that could be done.The reality was, Wilder had wanted her in a way he hadn’t wanted me.I had thrown myself at him that night before I left for college, and all he’d wanted to do was hold me.
A life with Wilder was all that I had hoped for and dreamed of, but facing the truth that he hadn’t wanted it, too, destroyed me.
The girl I had been was gone.I would never be the same.
One
Wilder
Nine Years Later
Through the doorway, I could see my daughter packing the last of her things in a cardboard box.It was physically killing me not to go in there and help her.But she’d asked if she could do it herself.Alone.
My plan had been to stay a week here, give her time after her mother’s funeral to mourn, adjust—hell, I didn’t know.What was an eight-year-old little girl supposed to do after she saw her mother’s casket being lowered into the ground?I was so fucking lost in what it was she needed and what I should be doing.
My daughter wasn’t a normal eight-year-old.She had seen too much over the past five years.I hadn’t seen the signs, and by the time I caught on to what was happening in this house, the damage had been done.Too much darkness, and I blamed myself.I should have known.Sarah was with me every other weekend, two months every summer, and most holidays.But when she was at my place, she was happy.Or I had been too fucking blind to see the darkness she hid in her eyes.
Rubbing my hand over my chest didn’t ease the pain or regret.All I could do was make damn sure her life was picture-fucking-perfect from now on.No more leaving her with someone else.I wanted her with me.If she was with me, I could keep her safe.
Turning, I headed back down the stairs.There was little I wanted from this house.I had lived here the first two years of Sarah’s life with Sylvia, her mother.Our marriage had never been good.The only happiness that had happened here was after Sarah was born.
As my foot hit the bottom step, I glanced over at the hunter-green recliner, worn and faded, sitting in the corner of the living room.I remembered the first night Sarah had come home.
Sylvia had refused to nurse, and I’d offered to get up and do the nighttime feedings.Holding that tiny little baby in my arms, I stared at her in awe.It was a surreal moment.Seeing that face peering up at me, knowing that, only eight months ago, I had thought she was destroying my life.
I hadn’t wanted anything to do with Sylvia’s pregnancy.I stayed gone as much as possible.Worked hours that I didn’t need to.Anything to pretend that I wasn’t about to be a father.
Then, when the day had come and Sarah was placed in my arms, she had become my reason for living.All my joy revolved around her.
The slamming of the screen door jolted me out of my thoughts, and I headed to the kitchen to see who had come into the house.I expected to see Sylvia’s mother before we left.I’d called and spoken to her stepfather about Sarah’s desire to leave today.He had been more understanding than his wife was going to be.Preparing to deal with my ex-mother-in-law, I braced myself for her forthcoming lecture on why Sarah was better off staying with her.That would be a cold day in hell.My daughter was living with me.
When my body had barely made it through the doorway, my eyes locked on a pair that, to this fucking day, still haunted me.Granted, they no longer sparkled with excitement at the sight of me.It was more of a detached expression, and I hated that it even bothered me.
“Wilder,” Oakley said before walking over to the refrigerator and opening it.
I tried like hell not to look at her ass, but, damn, it was hard.
Oakley had been breathtakingly beautiful at sixteen, when I shouldn’t have been looking at her.At eighteen, when she was still too entirely young for me, she owned me.She could walk in a room and become the center of attention without saying a word.The way she could smile and make a man believe he’d fallen in love instantly was a weapon I knew she had used more than once over the years.There was a time that I would have died just to hold her and have her look at me again as if I were the only man she wanted.God, I had lived for that look.To see that smile.
She wasn’t a kid anymore.She was a twenty-seven-year-old woman and a complete stunner.The kind that turned heads, made men stumble when they caught a glimpse of her.The unreal kind of beauty that was unfair to the female population.She was also Sarah’s only aunt and, unfortunately for me, one of Sarah’s favorite people.
Oakley despised me, and she made no attempt to hide the fact.Except around Sarah.My daughter was the only mutual ground between us.Otherwise, she acted as if I were invisible, and I did the same.The best I could at least.Ignoring Oakley Leola Watson was just about fucking impossible for any straight man.
“I was expecting Cleo,” I said when she turned around with a can of soda in her hand.
She smirked, but there was no amusement in her eyes.“That’s why I’m here,” she said, then popped the can open.“I figured you’d need my help.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise.It had been so long since Oakley had spoken to me.Much less wanted to help me.
A bark at the screen door interrupted what I was going to say.Oakley walked over to open it and let Belladonna—Sarah’s reddish-brown labradoodle—into the house.I had assumed that we’d be forced to leave Belladonna behind.Sylvia had refused to keep her, so for Sarah, Cleo had taken her when she was a puppy.I hadn’t expected Cleo to allow me to take Belladonna.
The dog had looked like a stuffed teddy bear the one and only time I’d seen it.Sarah had run out to the truck to show me her new puppy when I came to pick her up.That was two years ago.Belladonna was huge now.I only recognized her from pictures that Sarah had texted me of her.
“Sarah hadn’t mentioned the dog,” I said, trying to decide if this was a good thing.Letting her tell the dog bye might be more painful for her.“It might do more harm than good, having it here when we leave.”
