Page 25 of Lesson on Depravity

I try Cent, and he picks up, and it’s more peaceful than I thought I would hear over the phone, considering he’s in a busier area.

“Where’s she?”

Cent relays the information about a woman named Jessabelle taking her to a restaurant, but he was banned from going in with her. He has her under heavy surveillance outside, and he could clearly see her because he sent me a picture of them by the window.

Who the hell is this Jessabelle woman? Why is she so fixated on my princess? I need to know what her end game is and where she intends on taking this ‘familial’ lie to, but I breathe easier knowing that she isn’t in any harm.

That doesn’t excuse her mistake of not answering her phone.

Cent sends me the location, and I let Tito’s voice recoil back from the back of my head. I take my car and speed off to where Coco is and being in the busiest part of the city means a lot of traffic.

I had to resist the urge to run down pedestrians, but it would only hinder and waste more time. When I park, Cent’s car is across the street, and he looks over to me. His thumb jab towards the window where Coco is smiling and laughing with the woman.

The bottom of my right eye twitches. A rumbling growl vibrates through my chest as I stalk across the street. The hostess at the entrance stops me to ask if I had a reservation, but she backs away with a startled gasp when I nearly tear her head off with the rolling tension under my muscles.

Coco jerks in her seat when she lifts her eyes to me, her small body flies out of the chair, and she stumbles towards me with eyes set on me. It’s easy to ignore the gazes as I switch my attention from Coco to the woman sitting at the table.

She had a waiter with her, and they were talking. Coco reaches for me, asking if I was alright and why I was so angry. I’m more disappointed than mad at this point. I did explicitly command her to call me every thirty minutes, but she hadn’t done that after the last time I talked to her.

I should have known something was wrong at her hesitant tone; it was as if she was hiding something from me. Then that Xavier incident happened, and it took away my valuable time to drag my princess’s perky ass back home with force.

“Please follow me, sir.” The waiter comes up to us and gestures to the table with the woman and her dog.

Coco hooks her fingers in mine, dragging me towards the table with a smile. Whatever had happened in the time I couldn’t contact her; this woman had managed to poison my baby’s mind with manipulation and sweet words for Coco to be unguarded with her.

“This is Auntie Jessie, Alis.” Coco sits down at her seat and tugs me down to the other one.

The woman, Jessabelle, introduces herself with the emphasis on her last name. She deliberately wants me to know that she is wealthy with status and influence when she disgustingly giggles behind her hand.

It’s another flaunt of her money through the big diamond ring on her finger.

“Coco has told me much about you, Alistair.”

I calmly move my gaze down to the fidgeting girl beside me, her hand trembling under my tight grip as she smiles shakily.

“Have you now?” I note dryly.

She stays quiet, breaking eye contact, and looking down at her hands as she knows she has fucked up. It’s an issue we will deal with at home, and I let her stew in the territory of the unknown while I turn back to the smiling woman.

A snake, the voice in my head whispers.

“Her words have not done justice to you. You are more handsome than I had imagined.” Jessabelle’s complement is cringy, and I stop the sneer on my lips just on time.

“What do you want?” My clipped words don’t deter her smile.

“Alis,” Coco whispers, yanking my hand subtly. “Auntie isn’t a bad person.”

One lesson I keep implementing in her mind is that no one in this world will love her as much as I do, and they surely won’t have the best intentions for her as I do. Everyone is shady and untrustworthy, and she will get taken advantage of when she isn’t careful.

I thought that life on the streets had made her “street smart”, and she does have self-preservation and refined intelligence. Nonetheless, she is still a young girl without parental love. A couple of sweet words from someone older will tap into the lonely part of her, and she’s gone in the snap of a finger.

My fingers dig into hers, silencing her next words as the woman coos at my baby girl.

“Well, none of that, sweetheart. Dessert is here,” Jessabelle says at the arrival of the waiter again with a cart of sweet pastries.

I have to admit; she is good at reading Coco. She knows what to say in what kind of tone to bring that innocent smile on Coco’s face again. This woman is not going to be easy to get rid of; her cunning and slyness mixed with a dangerous cocktail of money and status; her husband will get the top brass police involved in her disappearance.

Coco fills her mouth with the pastries, round cheeks chewing away from the food with doe-eyes on me. She doesn’t dare to look at Jessabelle as she knows I don’t approve of it.

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