Page 56 of Reclaiming Adelaide

She wanted a reaction from me. She provoked me until I burst. But now that she had my full attention, she cried.

How fitting.

“Answer me.” I fisted her hair a little tighter.

“What we had was real.” A tear slipped down her freckled cheek and hit the corner of her mouth, disappearing into the creases of her lips.

“Don’t lie to me, Adelaide.”

“I’m not,” she whispered.

Where was the brat who just moments ago goaded me with laughter and smart-ass remarks?

“We were based on a lie and nothing more. You aren’t real—to me or anyone else.”

“Then why?” She struggled with my hold, her arms moving side to side in a seesaw motion. “Why are you protecting me?”

Adelaide pulled her head away from my tight grasp, despite the pain it caused her.

“I’m not protectingyou.”

“So what do you call keeping me hostage in your home for a week and ordering me around? A new kink of yours?” She struggled in my grasp, then grunted with frustration when I wouldn’t give. “Getoffof me.”

“You’re scaring her, Jake.” Becca took a step toward us. “You’re scaringme,“ she said, pleading with me from a safe distance.

Shit.

Talk about bad timing.

We were on our way to mourn our parents because of my unstable sister, who killed them and would’ve killed us too if we hadn’t fled to the neighbors.

Now here I was, getting physical with Adelaide in front of her, no doubt making her anxiety flare.

I let go of Adelaide and held my hands out to show Becca I’d released her in a... stay of execution? Truce? Whatever it was, this wasn’t over, but it was for now, for Becca’s sake.

“You’re lucky my sister doesn’t know about you,” I whispered in her ear. “She’d be heartbroken.”

I climbed off her and took my seat next to the couch.

Adelaide sat frozen, but her eyes were wild, glancing all around her as though she were stuck in her own body.

What if what she said was true? What if what we had was real? How could that be? I’d have been a fool to fall for her siren’s call again. Now that I knew how she worked and her goals, it should have been easy for me to resist.

Right?

Becca sat next to Adelaide and took her in her arms, but Adelaide kept her hands to her sides, her teary eyes staring at me as if I’d stomped on her heart and scared her to death in the process.

We only had a few more days until I forced her to take that pregnancy test. Then I’d either cut her loose or figure something else out. At least that’s what I kept telling myself. I had given little thought to what that might be.

I opened and closed my fist as I stared at her red eyes and popping freckles. I’d come so close in the last week to breaking. To pulling her sullen ladened body into me and making her forget the reason for her fear and all the things I’d said to her.

But I knew better. At least, I thought I did.

“It’ll be okay,” Becca whispered to her.

Adelaide smiled at Becca. But just the slightest lift of her lips, nearly undetectable before she stood, grabbed her bag, and walked into the restroom with my glare tearing her down with each step until the door slammed closed.

My knee bobbed up and down as I waited for her to leave the bathroom. What trouble could she get into in there?

---