Page 131 of Sweet Wicked Vows

“And who is going to look after her, huh?” Frederic said. “Our father is useless. The rest of us have jobs that we can’t exactly abandon, except Olivier, but I wouldn’t trust him to care for a worm, never mind a person.”

Olivier flipped our eldest brother off.

“God forbid you put something in front of your work.” Elliott rolled his eyes. “This is exactly why you’re going to lose Penny in the custody battle, you know that? Because you’re a selfishbâtardwho only thinks about himself.”

“We’ll hire a live-in carer,” I interjected before Frederic’s fist clashed with Elliotts’ nose. All three brothers snapped their heads toward me. “That way, she can come home, and there will always be a carer to assist her.”

Olivier clapped his hands. “Brilliant idea, Jax. It’s the best of both your ideas.”

“Finally, someone with their head not shoved up their own ass,” Elliott said. “Took you long enough to get here.”

If looks were murderous, Frederic’s icy glare would be the cause of death on my death certificate.

Neither of us had spoken to each other since our confrontation over the encrypted file.

Any worry I had that Frederic would find a way to break into the file disappeared several weeks ago. The pen drive I gave him arrived at my hotel room with my morning coffee.

I couldn’t be certain that he made no further copies or the exact reason why he suddenly decided to return it, but I reluctantly opted to trust him.

I meant what I said months ago. If he so much as breathed wrong in Evelyn’s direction, it was over. Family or not, he’d be dead to me.

“Thank the heavens you’re here.” Olivier followed me out into the veranda. “Between those two nearly stabbing each other every six seconds and Dad suddenly trying to be a dad, it’s been hell.”

Overlooking the gardens, the memories of Christmas played out before me. Evelyn dressed like the spring goddess Persephone herself while she teased me until we chased each other through the shrubs.

Now that I have caught you, I don’t believe I am strong enough or selfless enough to ever let you go.

I should have told her the truth then. Hell, I should have told her long before that, but I was a coward.

A selfish coward.

I wanted her more than I wanted to destroy Lexington.

But I knew I would only ever be able to have one of them. Loving her meant realizing my outdated grudge was, in fact, that:outdated.

Another fact I was too scared to admit.

Across the gardens, near the swimming pool, I noticed our father staring into the abyss.

“He’s been weird.” Olivier followed my gaze. “He actually told me off when I got here. I mean, the man has barely said more than two words to me since I was a baby, yet he told me off when I told Freddie to go swallow a dick.”

“Is that so?”

“Yup,” he said. “Then he told Frederic to watch his tone, which, as you can imagine, went down like a fucking nuclear bomb.Elliott and I had to physically restrain Freddie.”

Now that was bizarre.

I left my brother, ignoring the flashes of Evelyn everywhere on my walk down to my father.

She consumed me. Not even my waking thoughts were safe from her.

“Bonjour,son,” my father said without looking at me. “I’m sorry you’ve had to come home under such circumstances. But I appreciate you being here. It’s important that we are all here formamancoming home.”

“What’s this?”

He blinked slowly. “What’s what?”

“This act,” I said. “The ‘I suddenly am going to act like I give a shit after nearly thirty years’ father act.”

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