Page 170 of Delilah In Discretion

I leaned back as I tilted my head, thinking. “Orange juice, please.”

He nodded as he opened the fridge and grabbed the jug. He placed it on the counter, walked over to me, and kissed my lips for the hundredth time this morning. I giggled into the kiss, and he placed his hands on the counter outside my thighs. I ran my hand up and down his defined chest slowly.

“I want to go to the park today,” he said, pulling away.

I smiled. “That sounds fun.”

He ran his hands up and down my thighs, and I heard my phone ring. I looked over, and my heart momentarily stopped, asit was my dad. Archer continued rubbing my legs comfortingly, and I answered the call, expecting it to be something minor that he wanted to ask. I answered it as I played with one of Archer’s hands.

“Hi, Dad,”I said into the phone, and he replied... but something wasn’t right.

“Hello, Delilah.”He spoke in his angry dad tone, and I made eye contact with Archer as panic rose in my chest. He rubbed my knee soothingly as he could hear his voice over the phone, too, and my throat went dry.

It’s probably nothing. It’s just Dad. He always overreacts.

“...Daddy, is everything okay?” I asked softly, and he paused for a moment.

“Where are you right now?”

I bit my lip. “…I spent the night over at Kimi’s, and I’m out right now,”I said, trying to keep my voice stable.

As if God were punishing me, my father let out a humorless chuckle, one that told me he was furious.

He stopped laughing at once. “Come home, now,”he ordered, and I felt like throwing up as the next words came out of his mouth. “Bringhim,too.”

Killian

Sitting in my home office, I kissed Brielle’s lips as she was going over to Blaine’s home to pick up a few things from Maia.Meanwhile, the idiot was here with me as he lay on the couch and sighed heavily.

“I miss mysunshine. She told me to leave so she could let the kids take a nap. Probably because I planned to… make her take a nap too,” he muttered.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Still calling Maia ‘sunshine,’ I see?” I asked.

He scoffed. “And constantly referring to Brielle asdarlingis any less creepy?” he asked me.

I shrugged.He’s got a point.

After finishing up the last of the files I had to send out this morning, I took a sip of my coffee and sighed. The children were quiet today. The twins were either napping or in their playroom, Ivory and Zachary stayed in their rooms, and Delilah was at Kimiko’s, from what I heard from Brielle.

Sending the last email, I got a phone call from an unknown number. I thought of simply ignoring it, but I decided to answer just in case.

I answered, holding it to my ear. “Killian speaking.”

There was silence for a moment before I heard a voice. “Hello, Killian.”The voice sounded strangely familiar, but I couldn’t pinpoint it to anyone I may have spoken to in the last few days or weeks.

“Can I help you with something?” I asked, putting it on speaker as Blaine’s eyes virtually begged me to.

The man sighed.“How well do you know Delilah?”

I tilted my head, and Blaine’s face suddenly paled.

“Well enough, I believe… she is my daughter, after all. I’m sorry. How did you get this number, and why are you speaking of her with me?”

The man laughed. “You know, I thought about letting it continue to slide. I didn’t see the need to inform you of this, but the faster you know, the faster I can get away from you all andfinally live in peace... My little brother’s been living happily for the past few months, and although I don’t want to disrupt the fun, I’m tired of being the punching bag and worrying about my own life. If I can get you all away, then so be it.”

I was about to ask what exactly he meant when an email came to my screen… from Stephan Lockwood. I opened the email with about twenty attachments, and my mind drew a blank.

“You ever notice the diamond bracelet on her wrist?”Stephan, I’m assuming, said into the phone, but I couldn’t even speak. Pictures of Delilah and Archer spending time together, kissing, and one in which he was only in a towel. It was nothing too explicit, but I couldn’t even register what I was seeing.

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