Page 24 of Silent Betrayal

Atlas wastes no time stepping in and gently scooping me up into his arms.

“Shouldn’t she leave in a wheelchair?” Ben asks him.

“Why? I can carry her, and she’s safer with me.” I watch Ben roll his eyes at Atlas. When he sees me watching him, he gives me a wink. As we head to the exit, Jasper and Gideon join us silently.

Atlas carries me to the SUV where I’m placed in the middle row, between him and Jasper. They constantly ask if I’m okay and fuss over me the whole way home, and I can’t say I hate it.

Home.I sigh. Is it true? Can I call their home mine? I hope so. And for the first time in years, I don’t cringe at the thought of hope. Maybe I need hope after all. Maybe it’s what has kept me sane all these years.

When we pull up to the house, Tucker jumps out of the passenger seat and as soon as Jasper gets out, he snatches me up before anyone else can,causing Atlas to swear. I giggle at them all wanting to help me. It’s such a stark difference from my life before.

When we get inside, I look around. Everything looks just as I remember it. I’m not sure why I thought it’d look any different.

“Tuck, let me have her now,” Max whines as they all follow us.

“Uh-uh. You snooze, you lose, brother!” Tuck laughs.

“I’ll do your chores for a week,” he begs as we follow Jasper upstairs. I’ve never been up here before.

“Nope.”

“Two weeks!”

“Not gonna happen!”

“You’re no fun!” Max whines.

“Oh, I’m plenty of fun, right, Sugar?”

I smile up at Tucker, touching his cheek with my right hand, and he leans into it.

“Here we go!” Jasper says, and I look up as we enter a room on the second floor. My eyes widen in shock.

The room is huge. It has two large windows that look out to the backyard and the forest beyond. One has a desk under it with a computer, notebooks, and a bunch of other stuff on it. The other window has a nook for sitting, covered in pillows in different shades of green. One side of the room is basically its own sitting area with several comfortable-looking chairs. One wall has a fireplace with a rug in front of it and an inviting pile of pillows and blankets. There are two doors, and Tucker walks toward them.

Inside one is a huge bathroom with a glass shower and a separate tub big enough for three. There are gold fixtures and white marble tileseverywhere. It’sgorgeous. He takes me to the other door, which leads to a large closet.

It has a lot of clothes in it, and when I start to notice pinks and purples on some of them, I reach out to take a look. These are definitely girls’ clothes. I gasp and let go.

“Tucker?” I whisper to him.

“Yeah, Sug’?”

“Whose room is this?” I keep my voice low so the others won’t hear.

He laughs and walks us out of the closet and back to the main part of the bedroom. That’s when I take a good look at the bed. It’s huge, probably like two kings pushed together. It has a canopy draped over it from the ceiling and is covered in green pillows and blankets.

“She wants to know whose room this is,” Tucker announces.

“Tucker!” I hiss at him in embarrassment.

He laughs and I notice all the guys are in here now, some standing, some sitting on the edge of the bed, but they’re all watching me.

Dom decides to answer my question. “It’s yours. We wanted you to have your own space, somewhere you could feel comfortable and safe. Somewhere you could kick us out of if you need alone time.”

“Or invite us in to when you don’t,” Max adds, flopping backward on the bed with his arms wide.

“That’s… big,” I whisper to Tucker, but the others hear me too and smile, which makes me blush for some reason.

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