Page 177 of Heir

It must be all the stress of the last few days. I must have picked up a bug somewhere.

I quietly rushed to the bathroom and opened the toilet lid, dry heaving into the bowl.

Tears stung my eyes.

Behind me, I felt Kai sweep my hair out of my face.

I didn’t say anything to Kai as I dry heaved some more, but when nothing came out, I turned to him, feeling so pitiful.

“I think I’m sick,” I said to him with a pout.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, something strange moving through his eyes.

Wordlessly, he lifted me up in his arms and brought me to the sink. I quickly brushed my teeth. Kai brushed his teeth at the other sink, his eyes focused intently on me in the reflection, as if he was afraid I might disappear.

Once we were done, he lifted me up again and brought me to bed.

He kissed me briefly. I turned my face away.

“I might get you sick.”

He smiled a little, looking amused. “Ah, I don’t think I can get what you have.”

“You’re not invincible, Kai Madden. You can still get sick.”

He pulled me into his arms and covered us with the covers.

“I know. How are you feeling?”

I let out a sigh. “Like shit.”

“I’m sorry, baby. I wish there was something I could do for you.”

His hand moved to my middle, and he rested it fully on my stomach. He had been fascinated with my stomach since we got back, and I didn’t know what to make of it.

I snuggled closer to him.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He squeezed me. “Yes. I have my girl in my arms. I am okay. Why do you ask?”

“You’ve been kind of strange. I know a lot has happened, but… I don’t know. You’re more quiet than usual.”

He held up the Jude tattoo on his wrist.

I never asked him about it, mostly because I got the feeling it wasn’t something he would want to talk about.

“Today is the tenth anniversary of Jude’s death.”

“Who’s Jude?”

“My cousin. Not by blood. My Aunt Jenny adopted him when he was in middle school. He was in and out of foster care for most of his life before that, and the year Aunt Jenny met him, he was staying with an abusive foster dad who’d only taken him in for the government checks. We had been friends before, but since Jude joined the family, I guess we got closer. We used to get into all sorts of trouble. Drove my dad crazy.”

There was a twist of a smile on his lips, but this smile wasn’t like his other ones.

I didn’t say anything, wanting to hear more.

“The last night… we were out. I didn’t want to stay home because my mom was home, no doubt waiting for some man to come over so she could fuck him in the bed she shared with my dad. I wanted to sneak into my dad’s bar. Maybe steal some liquor and get drunk with Jude somewhere. Fuck around a little bit. Jude hadn’t wanted to go, but he usually went along with the messes I came up with. We cut through an alleyway, and that’s when it happened.”

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