by Knight, Amie
I shook my head as I opened the door. A bell jangled over my head and a petite brunette sat behind a desk in the middle of what looked like a reception area. I looked around, taking in how expensive and nice the place was. The desk was black and sleek and a new leather couch sat against the other wall, a glass coffee table in front of it.
When I chanced a look back at the receptionist, her eyes were wide and the phone was already to her ear. “Braden and Sebastian, we have company,” she said quietly into the phone.
I stepped forward and she placed the phone back on the receiver and I held my hand out, introducing myself even though I was pretty sure she knew exactly who I was. “Adam Nova.”
Her small hand took mine. “Melody DuPont,” she whispered and a snide smile took up residence on my face. Oh, wasn’t this rich. I almost hadn’t recognized her. After all, I’d only met her one time at the deb ball. Good ole Mel was here, too. What a reunion we were getting ready to have. I rubbed my hands together, fucking giddy.
I was still staring at Mel when the boys rushed into the room. There they stood, Braden and Sebastian, just the men I wanted to talk to.
Sebastian’s nostrils flared and Braden’s hands sat on his hips. They were on the defensive and they should have been. Sure, they’d grown into men, filled out, but so had I. And I’d had years in prison to harden me. I’d say if it came down to it, I’d win.
Sebastian’s eyes cut to Mel before saying, “We should take this to my office.”
I looked at Mel and winked before turning my smile to the boys. “Oh, I don’t know. This is a nice little reunion, isn’t it? I kind of like us all here.” I walked around the room predatorily.
Mel stiffened in the chair as I walked behind it and Sebastian’s jaw ticked. Ah. They were together now. Perfect.
That’s right, you fucker. It’s not cool when someone intimidates your woman, is it?
“What do you want, Nova?” Sebastian gritted out, all puffed out chest and glaring eyes.
“I want you all to stay away from Livingston.” My eyes met Braden’s. “Especially you.”
He let out a hard chuckle. “I hadn’t contacted her since the deb ball until the other night. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
I stalked back around the desk until I was standing with my back to Mel and facing Braden and Sebastian. “Then what the fuck were you doing at the Gala?” My voice was loud in the quiet room, but I didn’t give a fuck. I wanted them to be scared. I wanted them to know I wasn’t fucking around.
Braden stared at his feet before looking at me again. “I wanted to tell her I was sorry. That what happened that night was—”
“You’re sorry?” My heart thundered in my chest like a stampede of elephants. The sheer force of it threatened to send me to my knees. He was sorry? Rage blazed through me. He was fucking sorry? “What are you sorry for, Braden?” My voice went off like a shotgun in the quiet office. “Are you sorry for beating me within an inch of my life? For helping to send her away? For helping to put me away for three fucking years?”
I thought of all the nights I dreamed of Liv only to wake up to that hell. Of having no privacy, of sleeping on that hard bed, or missing my father’s birthdays. Or missing Liv. Just every fucking day.
Pain splintered through me as I screamed, “You’re fucking sorry?”
I heard the squeak of a chair move behind me as Mel came around the desk and stood next to Sebastian. He wrapped his arm around her protectively, but I wasn’t here for her.
“Don’t worry,” I sneered. “I’m not here for her. I don’t hurt women.” My eyes met Braden’s. “Unlike some people I know.”
If I had ever wondered if Braden knew what his father did, who he was, I didn’t anymore. His eyes gave everything away. They were full of guilt.
“We were kids,” Sebastian mumbled.
Braden stepped forward until we were toe-to-toe. “We didn’t know he was going to throw you in jail, or send Liv to boarding school. We only did what our parents told us. We were just children.”
“I was just a kid, too. Until I wasn’t. I grew up real fucking fast in prison.” Emotion burned my eyes. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think about how much I lost. How much they’d taken from me.
Braden’s eyes fell closed and pressed tight, and he tilted his head to the ceiling, like he was praying or pleading for something, anything to make this confrontation over.
When he finally lowered his head and looked back at me, regret so deep, so big sat heavy in his eyes. It was like I could see through them straight to his soul. And I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to forgive him. I didn’t want to make things right between us. It pissed me off. I had to carry my anger around like a shield because the minute I dropped it, I never knew who would attack.
“I’m sorry, man. I didn’t know. I didn’t know then what I know now.” Regret poured from him. “And I’m so fucking sorry. I want Liv to know I’m sorry, too.”
I let out a long breath and headed for the door. I had to think. I wasn’t prepared for this. I’d been prepared for a fight. Not for this. Not even a little.
As my hand hit the door, I heard, “I’m sorry, too.”
I turned to find Sebastian staring at me, Mel still in his arms.
“Tell Liv I’m sorry, too. I didn’t mean to scare her. Ever. My mother wanted us together. The thought, well, it grossed me out. She’s my little sister. But my mother was trying to push us together, so all I could think to do was to scare her away from me.”
“Why would your mother want you with Liv?” I couldn’t fathom it. I couldn’t wrap my brain around the fact that Georgina would ever want Sebastian and Liv together.
“Her inheritance. My mother wanted it.” He pulled Mel closer to him before finishing, “She wants to keep it in the family. She still does.”
My mind was blown. They’d kept us apart because they wanted to keep Liv’s money? What the fuck? What was wrong with these rich fuckers? And now Georgina and Sheriff Rothchild were married and living in Liv’s father’s old home on the beach.
“All of you. Stay the fuck away from her.” I flew through the door without another word. I had to let this marinate. I had to figure out my next plan of action because everything had just gone to shit.
I got in my car and flew across the bridge and past downtown and straight to the planetarium. I had to see her, just for a moment.
I pulled my Tesla into the parking lot and sprinted to the door, praying she was still with the kids this late. It was six in the evening and I knew she usually cut out around then. I wasn’t stalking her or anything. I just knew the exact time she got to work every day. When she took her lunch and when she left. I guess I still had my penchant for watching.
She was standing in the doorway to one of the rec rooms we used for the children’s program. It was quiet and it looked like everyone had gone except for this little girl and her mother standing across from Liv. I couldn’t see their faces well, so I walked up quietly, being a bit of an eavesdropper, I admit.
A little blond-headed girl wearing overalls held a paper solar system attached to two popsicle sticks and some string like mobile.
“Now, when you get home, you get your momma to help you hang that in your room over your bed so you can see all the planets. And guess what? We used glow in the dark paint, so they should light up at night!” Liv was bent over, her hands on her knees, gushing to the little girl.
Her words made me think of our nights beneath the glowing stars in my room. I wondered if they were still there or if someone had taken them down by now. Surely they had. It had been so long.
“So cool!” The little girl turned to her mother. “Can we hang it as soon as we get home?”
The mother leaned forward and kissed the top of the child’s head. “Yep, right after I make dinner. Okay?”
“Awesome!” the little girl shouted, bouncing out of the rec room and into the lobby. She held her mobile out like a rocket and zoomed it aroun
d the room. The mother and Liv finally left the doorway of the rec room and came into the lobby as well.
The mother shook her head and smiled. “I hope she wasn’t like that for you all afternoon. Girlfriend has some serious energy.”
Liv waved the woman off and pursed her lips as they walked toward me. “Girl, she has been amazing all afternoon. I love having her here.”
The woman leaned over, grabbed Liv’s hand, and gave it a squeeze quickly. “I don’t know what I would do without you. You know I can’t afford afterschool care. You’ve been a lifesaver.”
I was staring at Liv’s pink cheeks when the women finally arrived to my side of the lobby.
“Adam Nova. Well, don’t you look good enough to eat.” I heard from the mouth of the woman next to Liv.
She was so familiar. At first, I couldn’t quite place her. But it didn’t take long before I remembered her accosting me and my friends in the hall of my old apartment building.
I squinted, not quite understanding what I was seeing. She looked good, healthy even. “Mona?” I was sure my forehead wrinkle was out in full effect. It couldn’t be her.
“Yep,” she popped the P on the word for effect and shot me a big smile. “That’s me.”
I walked forward, holding my hand out, like a gentleman, so I wouldn’t look like the fool I had felt. She took my cold hand in her warm one and laid her other hand on top of ours.
“It’s good to see you home and looking well.” She seemed so with it, so genuine, such a far cry from the drug-addicted girl across the hall.
“Wow,” I breathed. “You look great, Mona.”
Her grin widened until I could see all her teeth. “Thanks,” she said, pulling her hands away. She nodded at Liv. “Your girl here keeps me on the up and up.”
My girl. A sense of regret so heavy hit me so hard I almost dropped to my knees. This beautiful woman wasn’t my girl. She had been once upon a time, but no longer. Liv seemed to be studying her shoes in an effort to not look at me. “She does, huh?”
“Yeah, since she’s been home, she’s been such a lifesaver with Maddie. I don’t know what I would do without her. She brings us groceries once a week and got Maddie into the program here.”
Still Liv wouldn’t look at me. My girl. Only she wasn’t. But she was living out her dreams. Helping people. Making a difference. Maybe one or two people at a time, but still she was doing it. A sense of pride I had no business feeling swarmed through me. She wasn’t mine to be proud of.
I noticed Mona looking back and forth from Liv to me. She must have sensed the tension because she smiled softly and squeezed my arm. “Well, it was good seeing you, Adam. I’m glad you’re back. You look good.”
I gave her a small smile back. “You too, Mona.”
Mona collected her daughter and left through the exit, and still I stood there watching Liv and she still stood there watching her shoes. “So, Mona, huh?”
Her gaze finally lifted to mine. She shrugged. “Yeah. She’s nice and can use the help.”
“You never did like seeing her like that.”
“I still don’t. She has bad days sometimes. But she’s a good momma. I want her to be able to keep Maddie.”
“Living the dream, huh?” It made sense why I saw her that day in front of my old apartment with the groceries.
Confusion colored her features. “What?”
I pushed my hands in my pockets. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Maybe this whole conversation was a mistake. But I was already here, now. I’d already started.
“You. You’re living out your dreams.” I motioned toward the rec room she worked in. “Helping the kids. Taking care of Mona and her child.”
She huffed and rolled her eyes. “No, Nova. I stopped dreaming when I was seventeen years old. I’m more in the habit of doing now.”
“What a shame,” I mumbled, thinking of our nights beneath the stars, her sharing her hopes, her dreams, and before I could help it, it just slipped out. So naturally. Like we were talking about the weather and not the soul-crushing reality of lost love. “Do you ever go out there? To the field?”
Her eyes flashed with something that could have been anger. “No. Never,” she said through clenched teeth.
Oh, I saw it now. Clear as day. My dreamer had turned into a hard realist. It stung, knowing she wasn’t the same girl I’d fallen in love with. She’d forgotten to look up.
She was studying her shoes again, so I decided a change of subject might be good for all of us. “How’s Raven?”
She pinched her lips together and if anything looked even more pissed. “You should check on her yourself. I remember when you guys used to be best friends.”
My eyebrows flew to my hairline. Was she fucking serious? “Well, I heard it wasn’t very hard for her to find a replacement,” I snapped.
She shook her head slowly and pushed her hair behind her ear. “I should go. This is pointless.”
She pushed around me and headed for the same exit Mona and her daughter had left out of. I instantly regretted our interaction. That wasn’t why I’d come there. Not to upset her or make things harder on her.
Still, as she walked out the door, it saddened me that she never went to the field. That she never looked at the stars. My Luna hadn’t been one to hide, but this woman who looked like her and smelled like her did. It was heartbreaking.
I wanted to go after her, but the truth was I didn’t know what to say. She’d changed, but so had I. What was done was done. The only thing I had some control over was the future.
I turned around and headed right back out the door I had walked into not long ago and got in my car. Fuck, but I didn’t want to go back to that island. It made me sick, but at least there I could hear everything and watch. I was just waiting for a slipup. Something. Anything, really.
I was crossing the bridge and smoking a cigarette when my phone rang, so I answered on speaker.
“Hey, Prof.”
“Don’t freaking hey me. You’ve been home for over a week now, and you haven’t even come by to see me. What kind of friend are you?”
“A busy one,” I retorted with a laugh.
“I get it. You done got too big for your britches and now you’re too busy for little ole me,” he teased me.
That was the farthest thing from the truth. When I’d gotten out of jail, I’d contacted Professor Johnson, knowing I could count on him to put me in touch with the right people for my app, LUNA. After all, he’d been the one to try to help me get the hell out of North Madison in the first place. I’d been too stubborn then, thinking I was stuck. I didn’t realize what stuck really was until prison. I’d gotten out of prison and immediately flown to California to live with my dad and his brother. Professor Johnson had helped me get on my feet, meet the right people in astronomy in California, and while I was deep in the cave working on LUNA, he helped me find my biggest investor, Written In The Stars Inc.
I hadn’t wasted time in prison. I educated myself. I went to classes. And I made plans. I promised myself I wasn’t going to become who Sheriff Rothchild thought he could make me by throwing me in jail.
I parked in front of my new house I loathed on this fucking island I wanted to burn to the ground. “I’ll come by this weekend. I promise. Things have been crazy since I’ve been back.”
He was quiet on the end for a few seconds before saying, “I hope you’re making good decisions, Adam. I don’t want you to lose everything you’ve built.”
I’d lost most of what meant anything to me a long time ago. I couldn’t explain it to people who hadn’t lost everything. Who hadn’t suffered such a huge fucking injustice. “I’ll be by soon.”
I disconnected and walked up the front porch steps, noticing immediately that my welcome rug the decorator had put in front of the door was slightly askew. I took five deep breaths before I pushed my key into the lock. I’d been waiting for this moment. It had taken him longer than I thought.
I walked in and set the lap
top bag and keys on the foyer table before walking slowly to the living room.
And there he sat in my fucking leather chair. Sheriff Carlisle Rothchild. “Sheriff Rothchild, I’ve been expecting you,” I said, walking over to the couch that sat directly across from him, and sat down.
He didn’t look pleased to see me even though he was in my house.
“I was expecting you a bit sooner, though.” I toed off my shoes and placed my feet on the coffee table between us. I wanted him to know how many fucks I had about his visit.
“What are you doing back here, Adam?” He looked older, more worn out, weaker than he did years ago. I guess being a murdering rapist didn’t do good things for your looks. His police uniform was rumpled and I could smell the tinge of alcohol in the air. He was getting sloppy. Good. It would only make my job easier.
I smiled. “Where’s your Southern hospitality, Carlisle?”
He squirmed a bit in the chair and I grinned harder. This fucker. I wasn’t just going to take him down. I was going to destroy him.
“You shouldn’t have come back here,” he gritted through clenched teeth.
“Why not?” I gestured to the house around us. “I kind of like living in the biggest house on the island.”
He darted forward angrily, teetering on the edge of the chair. “If you came back here to stir up fucking trouble, I swear to God I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” I moved my feet to the floor and sat up. “I have more money. More power than any of you bastards on the island now. What do you think you’re going to do to me?” Power thrummed in my veins. “I’m not a poor kid from the mainland anymore, Sheriff Rothchild,” I sneered. “Now get the fuck out of my house,” I thundered.
He shot up out of the chair and was in front of me faster than I expected. “I mean it. There better not be any trouble from you.”
I stood up in front of him, my chest brushing his, effectively shutting him up. “Oh, my middle fucking name is trouble. Now get out of my house and don’t you dare come back.”
He stormed to the front door and slammed it closed behind him while I sat back down on the couch and set my socked feet back on the table with a smile.