Page 174 of All The Happily Ever Afters

They’re beautiful and behind the gates is a grand estate, but it’s far too much and there’s no way in hell I want to live like that. In a massive house with more rooms than I would ever fill.

“We could never afford something like this.” Anxiety consumes me, wondering what the hell he did, who he stole from, or if he sold his soul to the devil until he speaks.

“Not this one,” he tells me when he catches my gaze. “That one’s not ours.” The relief is only slight.

“None of these are ours,” I remind him. “Our apartment is on the other side of the country. I said I’d come for a week, but none of these are ours unless we decide together.” I stress the last word,together, waiting for him to look me in the eyes. I can hear the gravel lift up under the tires just as easily as I can hearthe pounding of my chest. Even if it still feels like a faint tick. That damn tick is loud.

“I know,” he finally agrees with me, rounding the large white stone home and driving past it, down into a tree line for a slow minute and then another. The trees are a mix of burnt auburn and evergreen. And the evening light casts shadows and sprays of light on the gravel road and barren dirt path.

We have to drive deep into the winter forest before I see a much smaller house. I almost want to call it a cottage, but it’s too contemporary. I have to lean forward in my seat to get a better look as he parks the car, although he keeps it running.

The word “motherfucker” nearly leaves me under my breath. If I could pick a dream house, it would be this one. It’s set back deep under a canopy of mature trees, but with an opening for sunshine. There’s a wraparound porch and so many windows with pale blue shutters.

“This isn’t going to be like the last time, is it?” I ask him and he doesn’t answer immediately. “You’re not going to buy this house and wait for me to cave, are you?” I push him. Suddenly, that tick is becoming more of a slam with his ever-passing silence.

“Do you like it?” he asks me and I close my eyes, refusing to believe he did it again.

“You didn’t,” I whisper, praying he really didn’t.

“I bought it,” he tells me, letting the words slip out as if they don’t matter. Just like the last time he decided to have a house built here.

“Motherfucker,” I mutter, finally speaking the profanity aloud.

“I’ll sell it if you don’t love it, Chlo. We can up and leave and sell it no problem,” he’s quick to tell me, but that’s not the point.

“You can’t keep doing this shit!”

“Keep? It’s only here, only about finding a place to stay,” he argues back, letting his voice rise.

“Yes! Only here, the place I told you I never wanted to see again,” I retort, and my voice cracks with outrage. “Do I have to remind you what happened to the last place? Good things don’t happen here, and you should have taken that as an omen!”

The sky darkens at my words, the sun setting further into the trees, and I don’t like it.

“This isn’t okay,” I tell him in the calmest voice I can manage. I focus on taking one deep breath and then another.

“Don’t get worked up. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“How could you have thought this wouldn’t upset me?” I bite back. And then snidely add, “Oh, that’s right, because you don’t listen to me. Because I say words that don’t mean anything.”

“Don’t do that.” Sebastian’s voice is low as he stares at me. His gaze is heated and so penetrating I can barely look at him, but I do. “Don’t make it out like I don’t care, Chloe. All I care about is you.”

“Then why are we here?” I can’t control the emotion in my voice.

The quiet forest seems to get darker with every minute we sit here arguing in the car.

“Because Carter needs me,” he answers me in a tight voice.

Carter. His best friend. The one he left behind in order to run away with me.

I could never relate to that friendship. A friendship he calls family. Because I had no one to leave behind. Friend, family, or otherwise. I only ever had Sebastian.

“And that’s his place?” I surmise. “The big one when we entered?”Big onedoesn’t quite do it justice.

“This is all his property, but the place we’re going is deeper in the land. Private but safe and close. He lives there with his brothers,” Bastian answers, all the tension leaving him. Heknows I have a soft spot for Carter. What he doesn’t know is how guilty I feel about everything that happened. But how could he, when he doesn’t even know I’m very aware of what actually happened all those years ago?

“And what did he need you for?” I ask him, meeting his gaze. I can already see that he’s going to lie. His tell is the way he narrows just his left eye, ever so slightly.

“You never tell me anything,” I say before he can disrespect me with another lie.

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