Page 140 of To Hate Adam Connor

“Of course. If we’re gonna make a fort, it better be a comfortable one, don’t you think?”

He nodded enthusiastically and ran away, and I turned to find Lucy staring at me with knowing eyes as she pulled Aiden’s train sheet over her shoulders.

“You have to go.”

I closed the distance between us and pulled her into my arms, breathing in her soft scent to calm myself down. The sheet slid down her shoulders, fluttering to the floor as she moved her hands over my chest, instinctively understanding what I needed from her.

“I have to talk to her. She is…if I don’t, she’s going to make a big mistake.”

She pulled back and looked into my eyes for a few seconds. “I understand.”

I smiled. She couldn’t understand this. She couldn’t understand how much it’d hurt Aiden if Adeline said something stupid in front of the cameras just to get the attention off herself.

“You can’t, but I promise to explain everything one day.”

The second the words left my mouth, I knew I’d said the wrong thing, even before I saw the small flinch. She pulled back completely. “You said we’ll talk, right. We’ll do that one day.”

“Lucy, no.” I touched her face and took comfort in the fact that she didn’t pull away. “This…whatever it is that’s going on in Adeline’s life changes nothing for us. You still don’t get to run away from me.”

Aiden came out with two pillows hugged to his chest, both of them larger than his small body, and I had to let go of Lucy.

Taking the pillows away from Aiden, I lifted him up in my arms and pressed a kiss on his forehead. “I have to go and check on your mom, but I’ll be back as soon as I can. Would that be okay with you?”

“Lucy gets to stay?” His eyes flitted between me and Lucy.

“Yes. Lucy gets to stay with you. You two start the movie and I’ll catch up with you, okay?”

“You’ll take care of Mom so she won’t cry anymore? I tried to give her a hug, but she didn’t want it.”

I hugged him a little tighter to myself. “I’ll take care of your mom. You don’t have to worry about a thing, buddy. Do we have a deal?”

He hugged my neck and nodded.

I mouthed a quick thank you to Lucy and lowered Aiden down so he could get back to building a fort with his friend.

Before she could turn away, I stole a quick kiss from Lucy that didn’t last long enough and got out.

***

Adeline was pacing in her living room where all the drapes had been pulled closed when her assistant let us in through the front door. I had been right: the street was littered with paparazzi that came to life as soon as they saw my car come around the corner.

“Leave us alone,” Adeline ordered her assistant and Dan.

Even though Dan already knew everything there was to know about us, I preferred to have this conversation with Adeline alone.

“We have to make a statement,” Adeline started as she lighted up a cigarette. “Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped before I could make any kind of comment. “It’s just stress. I’m not starting up again.”

I stayed silent. She could smoke herself to death for all I cared.

“We have to make statement,” she repeated. “Together. I don’t know what we’ll say exactly, at least not yet, but you have to be in front of the cameras with me, holding my hand. Neil and your mom agree with me.”

“My mom? You’re still talking to her?”

She puffed out some smoke, and I found myself trying to pinpoint exactly when everything had started to go so wrong for us. Had it ever been right? “She said you’re not answering her calls. This…this thing affects them too. They don’t want the family name to be mentioned along with something like this.”

“Did they forget that you’re not family anymore?”

She pressed the cigarette into an ashtray with jerky movements and picked up another one as she tilted her head at me.

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