Page 50 of The Monster I Loved
Anger shot through me. Did I know this man? He spoke to me as if we’d exchanged words before. I studied him and pictured Summer on this very stool all those years I was away,spilling out her drunken guts about the monster who’d killed her father.
“Greg. It’s okay.”
Oh, so they were on a first-name basis? My stomach clenched at the sound of the man’s name rolling off Summer’s tongue.With him, you’re able to be soft and caring.
“Yeah, Greg. Summer doesn’t need you protecting her. She’s capable of murdering people herself these days,” I said, glaring at him.
He walked away, and I swore under my breath. My damn father was right. Without Summer Cohen, all his plans might be in vain. I scanned the bar, and each patron observed us. Some were more discreet than others, but all eyes were on us.
“Why are you still sitting there?” Summer mumbled.
“No, the question is, why are you sitting there? You only have a few hours to prepare for your new job at Fitzgerald, and from what I hear, your boss is an insufferable jackass.”
12
IT’S NOT ME, IT’S YOU
Summer
When I woke up,sick to my stomach, I blamed it on Thaddeus’s presence at the bar last night and the fact that I was about to walk into Fitzgerald corporations as an employee—or maybe even the fried calamari I got from Kelly’s bar. Daisy, who’d stopped by last night and slept over, now stared at me suspiciously.
“Are you okay?”
Before I could list all the reasons I wasn’t okay, I hurried to the toilet to hurl. When I returned, Daisy jumped to her feet and stood in front of me, eyes narrowed. “Are you pregnant?”
I burst out laughing at the absurdity. “What? I haven’t slept with anyone.” Just as the words left my lips, I lifted my hand to cover them. “No.” A wave of panic gripped me, bringing another surge of nausea with it.
“Did you and Thaddeus even use protection?” Daisy looked at me with sympathy.
I had no idea if we had, and my look must have told her that as she frowned.
“I’ll run to the pharmacy and grab a few tests.”
“It’s way too early to test,” I complained.
I lowered myself into a chair. How the hell did this happen? I was planning to kill the man, not start a family with him. “Shit.”
Daisy gripped my shoulders. “Summer, calm down. Maybe you aren’t pregnant.”
First, she pushed my mind off a cliff with wild ideas, now she was telling me to stay calm?
“Daisy, do you understand what you’re saying? I might be pregnant by a man I hate.”
“You wouldn’t be the first,” Daisy said, less gently than she usually would. Then she shook her head. “Maybe it’s something you ate.”
Thoughts raced through my mind. When was it that Thaddeus and I had sex? October 11th? How long had I been feeling queasy?
My track record with luck was clear. I’d have none if it wasn’t for bad luck. I was probably pregnant. Now that Thaddeus had made me a mother, what did this mean?
Could I murder the father of my child? He murderedmyfather.
If I did kill him, I now had a reason to be careful and not get caught. My maybe-baby would need a mother, preferably not one in prison. Fuck. Would I be robbing the child of a father then? Was it better to just pretend I didn’t know who the father was? A headache pulsed in my temples.
This was all his fault. Well, obviously, it took two to...But he was the one with a dick. He should have been more careful!
“Summer, whatever happens, I’m here,” Daisy said, wrapping a comforting arm around me. I dissolved into tears.
Nothing was going as planned, like fucking always.
