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Two weeks later
Tillie
“I love that we’re drinking out of mugs,” Bailey says, sipping red wine. Purchasing and moving was easy. It seems the saying is true; money does talk.
“I know,” I chuckle, looking around my lounge. “I still have to shop for the smaller things. I don’t really drink wine, so it didn’t come to me.”
“Hey so…” Bailey murmurs, ru
I shake my head, tucking my legs under my ass. “No. I think they’re all giving me the silent treatment.”
Bailey laughs nervously. “Oh, I have a gift!”
“Oh, Bays, I can’t take another exp—”
She hands me the box with Daemon’s book. My eyes go to hers as I carefully take it from her. “Where’d you get this? I couldn’t find it anywhere.”
Bailey brushes my comment off, swallowing all of her wine in one gulp. “I figured it’s important. You should read it tonight, and think again about coming to Nate’s house warming. It won’t be kicking off until probably after ten.”
I look at the big clock that hangs on my pristine white walls. It’s just after six. I smile, even though I know I won’t be going. No way in hell.
“Thanks. But no. You have fun though!”
She gives me a hug and stands. “Try reading through that tonight. You might feel more insightful or something…” Then she leaves, and I’m left sitting there wondering how she knows about Daemon’s book.
I flip through the pages, my fingers sca
Picture after picture. I reach the end, where there’s the baby rattle in the cell. I always thought he was giving me a clue to Micaela, but that was when I thought he was alive.
I tilt my head, looking closer at the image, then when I go to turn the last page, a photograph falls to my lap. I flip it over and pause, noticing it’s the same image from the cabin.
“What?” I whisper, placing my wine onto the large coffee table and curling my knees under my butt. I flick back to the baby rattle and then look back at the picture.
I look closer.
This is the baby that Scarlet had said she wanted to raise.
Who is this baby girl? I swear if someone says it’s me, I’m going to rage and burn this world down. I ca
I pick up my phone and dial Scarlet’s number. She answers on the fourth ring.
“Tillie…”
“Scarlet, that little girl you told me about…”
Silence. “Yes?”
“Who was her mother? The woman Hector had an affair with?”
“Who do you think?” Scarlet answers calmly.
What has this book got to do with me. What are you trying to tell me, Daemon. My eyes close.
“It’s Katsia, isn’t it? My mother had another little girl…” But it wasn’t Peyton, because we already know she wasn’t Katsia’s birth child.
“Correct. Think, Tillie… who could that little girl be?”
“I don’t fucking know!” I yell, standing to my feet. I’m pacing back and forth on my white fur rug, adrenaline thrashing through my veins. Who the fuck are you…
I stop walking.
I stop breathing.
“Scarlet…” I whisper, blood draining from my body. “What color was her hair?”
Scarlet snickers. “So fucking smart, young queen. For her hair, was as white as snow.”
The phone slips from my hands and without thinking, I snatch the keys to my car off the coffee table, ru
I don’t care that I’m in yoga pants and a loose knit shirt. Or that I threw on the first sneakers at my front door.
I don’t even care that all I know is Nate’s street and not the number of his new house. I jump into my car and fire it to life, before skidding out of the driveway.