Page 105 of Sweet Wicked Vows

Now, I didn’t see that coming.

Evelyn assured me that she was only down the stairs if I needed her, and that she was going to take the chance to speak to Flynn properly about what he disclosed to Laurence. I didn’t bother telling her that talking to Flynn was as useless as trying to catch smoke.

He needed a hell of a lot more than someone talking to him.

And Ireallywanted to be the person to do it after his latest stunt.

Closing Lexington’s bedroom door, he watched me enter the room, his fingers tapping in rhythm on a notebook. He didn’t deign to speak until I sat down on an armchair at the side of the room.

My skin crawled. The dimly lit bedroom smelled no better than the last time I was in it. A sterile, glorified hospital ward with no open windows to counter it.

“My memory isn’t what it used to be.” Lexington waved the notebook. “Trying to write it all down, making sure it’s all there even when I’m not.”

“Ah.”

He coughed. The sound was wet and strangled. “The way you’relooking at me, I’m guessing you know as well as I do what exactly is happening.”

“I have a theory.”

Terminal lucidity. Over the years, Elliott spoke of witnessing it firsthand at his job as a surgeon. A person’s sudden rally, as if nothing were ever wrong, just before they finally passed away.

Lexington nodded with a grunt. “Don’t tell Evie or Flynn. Let them think that it’s going to be okay, even if it’s short-lived.”

“You don’t think that’s cruel?”

“If this is my last day on earth, I don’t want to be surrounded by crying. I want to leave this world with the last image being the smile on my children’s faces.”

“Ah.”

How incredibly selfish of him.

He wasn’t going to be the one left to pick up the pieces of his children when he died. He wasn’t going to have to watch Evelyn’s heart break into a million shards—the same heart that was only freshly healed after the last fucker in her life broke it.

“Is there a reason you wanted to see me?”

“You’ll look after her, won’t you?” He wheezed. “Make sure that she doesn’t lose her way too much when I go. She acts tough, thinks she needs to be strong for me and Flynn, but deep down, she’s fragile. She bottles everything up until she is ready to explode. I need you to be there for her.”

He opened his notebook, finger running down the page until he found what he was looking for. “There’s something else I need you to do, something Evie cannot know about. I need it done and taken care of before Flynn takes control of the business.”

My pulse quickened. “What is it?”

“I wouldn’t ask but I fear I am running out of time. Kerry won’t answer her blasted calls. She is off on holiday to Thailand for a week and her useless phone isn’t picking up a signal. I’m going to need you to get a message to her when she returns back to work.She needs to delete these files.” He motioned to his notebook. “Remove them for good. I don’t care if she has to burn her entire hard drive, tell her to do whatever it takes.”

I moved from the chair to his bedside, lifting his notebook. “And what exactly are these files?”

“Mistakes I won’t have my children pay for.”

I tried to maintain my composure.

“We’re businessmen. Our whole lives revolve around our companies. I’ve done things I am not proud of, but I did what I had to do to succeed. You understand, don’t you?” Lexington asked. “I was young once like you, and eager to make a name for myself by any means necessary. I did a lot of things to get where I am today. I did them out of sheer necessity, not because I wanted to do them.”

There were three files named.

Two of which were already public information.

“Can you do this for me? If I ask Evelyn, she will only make it her mission to uncover the truth.”

“And Flynn?”

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