Page 85 of Best Laid Plans

We had a rather lovely and large home in Atlanta's Tuxedo Park—it was opulent and expensive, and Mama could live there in her bubble of money.

"Mama—" Alma began but was immediately silenced by my mother's loud hush.

"No, Alma, you can't come live with me. I am so…shocked. I can't believe who you've become."

In all honesty, Mama raised Alma to be just like her, and my sister took it a few rounds around the yard and made it worse.

Mama then walked away to her wing of the house.

"Anson—" Alma began.

"Nope." I left my sister crying and didn't feel bad about it.

Chapter 32

Nova

"How did you get up here?" I asked, standing at the door of my apartment on a Thursday evening, a week after everything went down with Larue Homes. This building had a doorman; someone couldn't just walk up to my door. But Anson had.

"First, I drove from Sentinel. And then there was some walking involved."

He was in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt like he used to be when I first met him. Since we started working on Sentinel Heights, I'd only seen him in suits. He looked young, younger than his thirty years. There was a boyishness about him.

"Is this funny to you?"

"You blocked me on your phone. What did you want me to do?"

"Stay away from me. That's what I wanted you to do."

"May I come in?"

"No."

"Sugar, we have to talk."

"No." Any minute now, I was going to stomp my feet.

He looked at me, and the next thing I knew, he picked me up and carried me into the apartment. He set me down ,and locked the door behind him.

"Anson, I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to ever see you again. Twice, you've let me down. I don't know what happens to you, but each time we have any kind of sex, which has been exactly twice, I find myself in handcuffs the day after—and not in a fun way." I was screaming now.

"I'm sorry," he said gently. "I'm sorry for not trusting you. I'm sorry for not believing you. I'm sorry for so many things, Sugar, but I'm not sorry for loving you. I'm not sorry for being here to talk to you. I'm not sorry for wanting to make a life with you."

My eyes bugged out. "You have some brass balls on you. Make a life with me? Are you out of your flippin' mind?"

"I love you, Nova."

I took two steps away from him. "You don't even know what that means," I choked out.

"It means that I have thought of you every day for the past seven years. That means that when my unit was ambushed and I thought I'd die, the only person I wanted with me was you. The only person I said goodbye to in my mind was you."

He almost died? Was this when Nina's brother died, and he carried his body to safety so his family could say goodbye to him? I almost lost him, and I didn't even know it.

My God, I knew nothing about Anson. There was a whole life he'd lived that I knew nothing about, and vice versa. He didn't know what shaped me, what made me who I was.

"You left me in that jail cell that day." I let my grief and sadness pour out. "You left me to be raped and maybe killed. You left me again when Savannah PD showed up at my doorstep."

"I know."

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