The moment her piddly mind grasps his meaning is a bittersweet one for me, and I relish the cry of anguish and bare my teeth at her pleas for mercy.
“Edward, please, you cannot—”
“You have exactly thirty minutes to collect whatever you can carry and get your arse out of my house before I call security to drag you out.”
“Edward, I’m begging you—”
“Your pleas won’t work on me. Now get the fuck out of my house before my grandchildren see your pathetic carcass again. Come, Lucian, we have funds to freeze and accounts to close. The bloody leech has a list of the things as long as my bleeding arm!”
We leave her there, sobbing so dreadfully she doesn’t make a sound, and I feel the tight band of tension in my chest ease. Sure, wringing her bloody neck would have been satisfying, but he’s just given me more in the way of revenge than I could have ever hoped for.
I now get to see the monster I’d spent years fearing and hating slink away defeated and broken, something that is so much more than what I could have dreamed.
“Now then, what say we have a drink and watch her slink away from the library windows? I have a need to watch my burden disappear.”
Chapter Thirty Three
Ash
The journey back to America is…interesting. Viv and the girls, not having had anything else to do but keep me company since the wicked witch had flown, had used the jet to get back home to the lives and loves they’d left behind.
I’ve been stuck being a buffer between Luc and his dad. They’re no longer enemies or anything; they’re just not…family, I guess. Even after they’d stood toasting good riddance to that…I won’t tell you what I secretly call her ‘cause it’s a filthy word. Well, they’d gone back to silently glaring at each other.
The kids, as normal kids do, feel nothing of the undercurrent of hostility, which I have to say is all Luc—I don’t say this out loud because the guy would go postal at me about misplaced loyalty.
I know because the one time I’d told him to chill out he’d said, “You’re being a bloody disloyal shrew, love.” So I’ve basically just kept it zipped and pretended not to like Eddie whenever Luc was around.
“Love, are you sure you’re okay? You’re looking peaked,” Lucian says for the fiftieth time as he comes back from the little room where he’s put the little ones down for a nap.
“Yes. No…I think my tummy aches. I really shouldn’t have eaten so much breakfast, but that cook is diabolic when it comes to eggs and bacon. God, I feel so full,” I moan, rubbing at my belly with a groan.
“I don’t like this.”
“Of course not. I get a hang nail and you’re ready to call the doctor. Calm down, babe, it’s just a little indigestion,” I laugh, stretching out on the leather sofa with my head in his lap and his hands in my hair.
“Are you okay now? I mean, you didn’t get much of a say in what happened to her royal cu—highness. Will you be all right with letting your dad see to her?”
What I’m actually asking is, ‘Will you please stop being so scary cold all the time? Because it’s starting to freak me out a little.’
He laughs loudly, and I blush, realizing he caught my almost slip of the tongue and finds my language amusing. Not always, mind you, since he has a stick up his ass about women cursing, but in this instance he’s laughing and not giving me a hard time.
“I’ll be fine, love. She got a lot more punishment from being banished and left penniless than I could have ever made her suffer. Hopefully that’s the end of that.”
“And will you let your pop visit eventually? He really loves the kids, and—”
I try to say everything in a rush, but he interrupts me by shoving a hand over my mouth and raising a brow.
“I told you I would think about it, and that’s final. Now close your eyes and rest for a while, love. You really do not look well,” he commands, leaning down to give me a peck on the lips before taking up his phone to check email.
Great. I hope this nap does the trick, or Mr Paranoia will definitely have my ass at the doctor’s as soon as we land.
Being married to an attentive and weirdly affectionate rich guy who buys me everything and worries about my health is hard work. But I suppose I can do it.
***
Luc
Lying to my wife is not one of the things I’ve always aspired to, but if it gets the little brat off of my back about ‘Pops’ visiting then I’ll lie through my bloody teeth to accomplish it.
Another reason I’m not that hot to annoy her right now is that the woman is so packed with hormones I’m loathe to upset her and thereby lose my bed privileges.