Page 89 of Sweet Possession
Serene.
“I can go if you want to be alone. Nash is waiting,”I said hesitantly.
Fox uncrossed his legs, standing to his full height and taking severalsteps to where I hovered in the gap between the hedges. He stopped in front of me, but he didn’t touch me, keeping a small gap between us.“No, I don’t want you to go, Cora. Ineverwant you to go.”
A sad smile crossed his lipsthatmade me shuffle closer to him,wanting to show himthatI’d never go away. His eyes flicked from one of my arms to the other, before he reached up and slid a warm palm over the area where he grabbed me.“Did I hurt you?”
“No, Daddy,”I replied honestly, my gaze dropping to my arm wherehe was tentatively stroking my skin. The marks left by his fingers had long faded.Evenin his state of panic, he’d been aware to not hurt me.
“You promised me you wouldn’t go near the pool,”he said, betrayalheavy in his tone as he took his hand away, leaving me bereft of his touch.
“I’m sorry. I know I did, but Sav was only gone for a few minutes soshe could go to the toilet-”
“Sav was there?”Fox said, a frown creasing his brow.
“Yeah. Nash went to get ice cream. I guess it looked like they’dleft me on my own. I never would have gone anywhere near the pool otherwise. But I thought you wouldn’t mind because I was with Sav.”
He exhaled a heavy sigh, his body sagging as he squeezed his eyesclosed.“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions,”he said, opening his eyes which were now filled with agony. “I’mjustso fucking scared of losing you, baby girl. After what happened at the party, I was already on edgethatyou were slipping through my fingers.”
I stepped forward, wrapping my arms around his broad waist andresting my cheek against his chest.“I’m not going anywhere, Daddy.”
He kissed the top of my head, sighing again.“When I saw you sittingby the pool, I couldn’t think straight. All I saw in my head was your body floating in the water.”
I pulled back so I could see his handsome face.“Was…thatwhathappened to Jessie?”
His head turned to look at the grave beside us as I held my breath,waiting for him to answer.“Yeah, she drowned.”
My heart cracked at the sorrow in his voice.“How did it happen?”Iwhispered, hoping I wasn’t crossing a line by asking himthat.
His eyes met mine again, his jaw tensing. Nash’s words echoed in myhead.
Be patient.
Justwhen I thought Fox was going to close down, heunwrapped my arms from around his waist, but taking one hand, he led me over to the bench, pulling me into his lap.
He chewed his bottom lip, debating how to start his story.“I’ll neverforget the first time I met Jessie,”he started, affection heavy in his tone.“My mom brought her home from the hospital the day after she was born. She was swaddled in blankets and she looked so small. So innocent. I was only six, but I remember thinkingthatI was going to spend my life making sure no one hurt her. Least of all my dad. He was horrible to me, but I was going to make damn sure he couldn’t hurt her.”
My lips curled into a small smile. Fox had been a protectorevenas ayoung boy.
“But I didn’t need to worry about him hurting Jessie. He barelyacknowledged her existence.”
In any other world,thatwould have shocked me. How could a fatherdeny their daughter’s existence? But I knew how cruel parents could be, and arguably, being ignored by a parent wasn’t as bad as being at the end of their vile treatment.
“Why?”I asked, the question slipping from my mouth.
Fox sighed.“Thatwas something I used to wonder myself. Jessiewas a cute baby, and anevencuter kid. As she got older, she had me wrapped around her little finger.”He smiled fondly, but it soon slipped. “My mom had gone back to spending most of her time avoiding the house, and the nanny she’d hired to look after us was terrible. So I spent most of my time looking after Jessie. I was only a kid myself, but I did more for her than what my parents did combined.
“One night, when Jessie was three, I heard her crying. I went to settleher back to sleep and I heard my parents arguing. My dad was shouting all sorts of crap at my mom. I’d lost count of the number of times I’dseen him angry, butthatwas nothing compared to how mad he was at my momthatnight. Andthenhe shouted somethingthatmade my blood turn to ice.”
“What did he shout?”
“He said he’d known from the minute my mom told him she waspregnant with Jessiethathe wasn’t the father.Thatmy mom was a whore who’d slept with so many different menthatshe didn’t know who the real father was. Andthenhe saidthatno matter what, he’d never accept Jessie as his daughter, and there were times when he looked at her and wished she was dead.”
I gasped as I covered my mouth in disbelief. I knew my dad neverloved me, but he’d never wished me dead. A heavy weight settled in my stomach. Had Fox’s dad killed Jessie?
“Jessie died a week before my eleventh birthday,”Fox continuedbefore I could ask himthatquestion. His eyes had grown distant as he relivedthatday. I put my hands against his chest to let him knowthatI was with him,thathe wasn’t back there as the ten-year-old boy.“My mom had gone away for the weekend, and the nanny had called in sick. My dad had to stay home from work to look after us. Well, I say look after us. His version of babysitting was to shove us in the playroom with the TV on and leave us to it. But I didn’t mind. Jessie and I had each other, and if my dad was busy with work,thenhe wasn’t being mean to me.”
He leaned back against the bench, his pained gaze now fixed onJessie’s grave.“I’d had this bright idea to make a fort out of the furniture and some blankets, and we were playing a game. Jessie was the princess and I was a monster. She had to get from one side of the room to the safety of the fort without me catching her. If I caught her,thenI got to tickle her.”
