Page 176 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part Two
Her face falls.
“You’re married?” she asks, her voice small.
“Yup,” I reply, popping the “p.”
She looks at me again with that flat expression and her head tilted.
“Is it serious?”
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
“Yes,” I emphasize. “Quite.”
She hums again and says, “That’s too bad.”
In-fucking-deed.
I almost shout with joy when I hear Axel come in with a group of people, most likely the medical team, who are creating a custom outpatient mental health program for Skai. It felt…kinder to have her be in a home setting where she can be free to exist quietly and in peace, rather than in a sterile hospital.
The doctors—a psychiatrist and a psychologist—enter the room. I pull Axel aside while they introduce themselves to Skai.
“‘Sup, chief?” Axel says, rocking on the balls of his feet with a sour straw hanging from the side of his mouth.
“Axel, since this is your grand idea, I need you here with Skai,” I say, giving him a hard look. He rolls his eyes.
“She’s just a kid. Why are you so scared of her?” he murmurs, turning so his back is to my cousin.
“Oh yeah? You real fuckin’ sure about her being ‘just a kid?’” I ask, and Axel lifts an eyebrow, giving me a confused look.
“Whatever, man,” he says with a shrug. Just then, Skai rises to walk across the room with a nurse.
Axel stops her and says, “Hey, I’m Axel. You like playing video games?”
Skai smiles again, but instead of answering him like a normal fucking person, she takes a small step closer to him.
“Iloveplaying games, Axel,” she murmurs.
Aaaaaaand, I’m out.
I look past the two of them to see if a nurse or a doctor or any-fucking-body just heard what my sixteen-year-old cousin just said to this grown man. Apparently not.
“Yeeeeeah,” Axel draws out, clearly freaked the fuck out, too. “I’ll send over a console and a few games you might like to play.”
I leave him to handle that shit on his own. Truth is, Skai would never be on my property if Axel hadn’t pitched such a bitch fit. This is his circus to manage until she gets stable and can go off on her own.
I leave the room and head to the other side of the house, where the twins are in their playroom. I watch them from the door for several minutes. Raiden and Tempest sit on matching cushions, both playing a game with gorillas wearing party hats.
“You gotta jump, Rai!” Tempest says, damn near growling.
“Help me! I don’t know how!” he shouts back.
“Ugh! R2 and up, dummy!”
“Hey! I’m not a dummy, dummy!”
Raiden pushes Tempest at that, and before they can get into a real tussle, I step into the room.
“All right, you two. No fighting,” I say.
