Page 25 of Seeds of Sorrow

“Your mom,” Peyton said softly.

Hadina was silent as she finished tending to Peyton’s hand. Peyton was half-convinced she was going to ignore her when the woman stood, tidying everything back into the box.

“My mom was the best person I’ve ever known,” Hadina replied quietly, before walking out the kitchen.

The sadness in Hadina’s voice threatened to send Peyton into another flood of tears. She blinked them away, taking a deep breath as she prepared herself to clear the mess she’d made on the floor. Her eyes widened as Hadina walked back into the room, a dustpan and brush in one hand, and a mop in the other.

“What are you doing?” Peyton asked incredulously.

Hadina scoffed. “I may be a bitch, but I’m not going to make you clean this up when you’ve already hurt yourself. Just sit there and look pretty, okay? Take a minute to get yourself together.”

Peyton’s jaw dropped as she watched Hadina sweep, the sight of her doing something domesticated so bizarre that she couldn’t formulate words. As a result, she did indeed just sit there and look pretty, staring at Hadina all the while.

Chapter18

HADINA

If there wasone thing Hadina hated in life, it was fucking cleaning. It was tedious and annoying and the bane of her existence. But she couldn’t exactly let Peyton try to sweep up and mop away the remnants of the destroyed moussaka.

Hadina could still hear Peyton’s scream playing over in her ears, the agony in the sound piercing Hadina’s cold heart. She thought someone had broken in and tried to hurt her, so she grabbed her gun and sprinted to the kitchen as fast as she could. The relief she felt to see Peyton there with no attacker in sight was palpable… until she noticed the blood. They say that when bulls see the color red, they charge; Hadina wasn’t much different. She saw the girl bleeding and her heart pounded, automatically switching to an act-now-and-think-about-the-consequences-afterwards mindset.

Now she was sweeping up the mess while Peyton’s eyes bore into her. It made her hot all over and there was nothing she could do about it. After Peyton had exited the office, leaving her spent and dripping, Hadina had barely seen her. She knew that Peyton asked totalkbut Hadina couldn’t offer the answers she knew the girl needed. Which meant she also knew it would be wrong to kiss away the tears coating Peyton’s cheeks, but damn, she really wanted to. She hated herself for it.

“You know, I could have patched myself up and cleaned. You didn’t have to do it,” Peyton said as her eyes followed Hadina’s every action.

Hadina shrugged. “Perhaps, but I wanted to help.”

Peyton pursed her lips for a moment and tilted her head slightly, as though she were seeing her employer at a new angle. “Why? Why would you want to help me? Besides the fucking, I’m pretty sure you hate me.”

“Hate is a strong word.”

“That wasn’t an answer, Hadina.”

Hadina finished cleaning the floor, considering Peyton’s question. She honestly wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to help, but she knew she most certainly didn’t hate the girl. Hell, Hadina had been beating herself up since the day they met about just how much shedidn’thate her, even though she should. Peyton was beautiful and infuriating and nosy and far too involved—but she intrigued Hadina beyond measure and that was something she couldn’t quite let go of.

Leaning the mop against the countertop, Hadina carefully walked on the wet floor and took a seat beside Peyton. “I don’t hate you.”

“Are you sure about that? Because it sure as hell feels like you hate me.”

Hadina sighed and looked at Peyton from the corner of her eye. Running a hand through her hair, she tucked a strand behind her ear and blew out another long breath. “I definitely don’t hate you. You are… interesting, and I find myself being drawn to you far more than I would like.”

Peyton laughed bitterly. “So, you like me but you don’twantto like me? That’s a real vote of fucking confidence.”

Hadina rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. It isn’t necessarily about you.”

Peyton raised a brow and waited patiently for her to continue.

“I’m not a good person, Peyton. I do bad things and I don’t feel guilty about it. I will most definitely continue to do bad things, and the only guilt I will feel is if you get caught up in it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I understand your words, Hadina, but I disagree. You’re letting fear rule your emotions and, as your dad so kindly reminded me, it’s an unhealthy way to live. You don’t have to be a bitch all the time just because you don’t want to feel. I don’t need pretty words and declarations; I just need honesty and a little bit of trust.”

Hadina’s mouth quirked. “That’s quite a few times you’ve called me a bitch now, you know. If you were anyone else, you’d have a bullet in your skull.”

Peyton eyed her for a moment and then burst out laughing, her puffy eyes still red from crying, which made her look delirious. “And that’s the third time you’ve threatened me. I’m still here, aren’t I?”

Hadina soured at that. Shehadthreatened her cruelly more than once, and yet not much had come of it. Hadina had expected Peyton to run after that first time, to become a problem that she would solve in the only way she knew how. But the girl had defied Hadina’s assumptions about her, remaining in the house and digging herself further into their lives. It made her suspicious, and oddly aroused. She imagined a scenario where she had to use extreme methods to find out what Peyton knew, torture her with pleasure until she promised to keep quiet.

Hadina crossed her legs, squeezing her thighs together tightly to apply pressure on her aching pussy. “I think you have a death wish.”

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