Page 124 of Heir

“I—” He closed his eyes, looking tormented.

I cupped his cheek, and when he opened them, his blue eyes were filled with emotions I didn’t understand. But they made my heart race, nonetheless.

“Baby. I didn’t want to push you too far, too fast.”

“And how would you do that?”

“By suggesting you quit your job and stay by my side.”

I tensed, not sure I’d heard him correctly. “What does my job have to do with anything?”

“It’s a place you are spending away from me. And that’s not acceptable anymore.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but he pressed a finger against my lips.

“Just temporarily,” he said. “While I work to contain the situation. I can’t have you out of my fucking sight right now.”

“What do you mean?” I asked quietly, and why did I get the feeling that he knew more than he let on?

He confirmed that by saying, “I found the fucking website.”

I stiffened slightly before I tried to push him away. He tightened his hold.

“No, let me go!” I cried. “If you know about the website, then you’ve seen it. You know what my mom—”

A sob burst out of me.

Then I stilled, surprised. Kai gave me that same look I would get sometimes when I told people my dad had died in a car accident when I was little.

It waspity.

I didn’t want his fucking pity.

“Kai…”

“Shh, pretty girl.”

He pulled me tighter against him, and tighter still, until it felt like I wasn’t being suffocated by all the pressure.

“How could she do that?” I asked as the tears pooled in my eyes and toppled onto my cheeks. “She’s my mom. She’s supposed to love me. How could she do that to me, Kai? Why?”

I didn’t understand it.

Wasn’t there supposed to be something straightforward about human emotions?

We cry when we’re sad, when someone close to us passes. We laugh when we’re happy, and if you’re a parent, you’re supposed to love your kids unconditionally.

Those were how things were supposed to be, but my mom…

She didn’t love me.

My lips trembled, and I burrowed closer to Kai.

“I just don’t understand. Dominic loves you, doesn’t he?”

I pulled back to see his eyes filled with a storm. He leaned down a little closer to me until I could make out the silver flecks in the sea of blue in his eyes.

“Yes, baby. He loves me. That is the way it’s supposed to be. But sometimes, parents are terrible people who shouldn’t have kids.”

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