Page 67 of The Right Woman

A sinking feeling fills my gut.

Neither of us can give him an answer.

Chapter

Twenty-Five

ADON

She stirs in my arms,and I grip her tight to my chest. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“But I have to pee.”

“Just go.”

One of her spring green eyes peers up at me with a question pinching her brow. I let my own eyes crack open and can’t help the smile that spreads across my face.

She laughs, then slaps at my bare chest. “I’ll be right back.” With a graceful move, she leaps toward the bathroom, then reemerges and gets right back into place. The spot she belongs. Warm and right at my side.

I stretch and pull her up as I situate my back against the headboard, then grab my phone. “Oh shit.”

“What?” she asks.

“They got him!”

“Let me see!”

I hold the screen for her, and she reads the headline of the front page of Northview News aloud. “Professor poisons wife as a perverse lesson. It says he did it! They aren’t covering it up!Hmm, no mention of Sean, though. Do you think he agreed to the plea so his son could get away with everything?”

“I don’t know. But I do know that he’ll never get near you again. I’ll make sure of it.”

She practically jumps on the bed and snatches my phone from my hand. “Oh my god, Adon! Breaking news. Sean Harrison, son of prominent local professor, has been found dead in his family home. Police suspect self-inflicted injuries, which were corroborated by the deceased’s note. Mr. Harrison had just received word of his father’s arrest for suspected murder.”

Together, we slump against the mattress and stare at one another. “Hate to say it, but I guess that problem took care of itself,” I say.

“Yeah…I wonder how Maeve is going to take the news.”

We don’t have to wait long to know. Maeve and Piper’s mother frantically texts her all morning, hoping she’ll meet them at her mother’s house.

Piper seems worried until I tell her, “There’snoway I’m letting you go in there alone. I’m never leaving you with those people again.”

She jumps into my arms and wraps herself around me. “I love you, daddy.”

My lips brush her cheek as I smile and hold her tighter. “I love you, too, my baby.”

Piper’s mother’s home is exactly how I would picture it: stuffy, too clean, and smells like cheap perfume. Maeve’s face is red and puffy as she greets us from the kitchen island. Piper’s mother glances up at me with a pouty bottom lip, then sticks out her hand and flutters her lashes at me.

“Hi, Cora Hendricks. You are?”

I don’t bother giving her a handshake, maintaining a grasp on Piper’s shoulders as I simply nod instead. “I’m Adon Griffin, your daughter’s boyfriend.”

“Oh my,” she says, pressing her open palm to her chest. “Aren’t you a little bit too old for her?”

Piper grimaces and straightens up, then grabs my hand in hers, but doesn’t say anything. I know she only wanted to come today for one reason, and I’m here to support her through it.

Maeve sniffs and grabs her sister in a mock hug. “Oh, it’s so awful, Piper. I’m not sure who will take me to the Greek formal this year.”

It doesn’t surprise me that she’s so vapid, but her sole concern still makes me shake my head subtly.

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