Page 54 of The Ring Thief
She nods, considering that. “You said you’d give me the annulment.”
“I did,” I admit sourly.
“So, I’ll agree to talking once it’s done, but I won’t promise that it’ll change anything.” She doesn’t wait for a response, opening her door and getting out of the car. Before she shuts it, though, she bends down and her blue eyes meet mine, shining in the interior light. “No more stalking, Dec,” she reprimands gently. “I don’t want you to see something that might hurt you.”
With that warning ringing in my ears, she shuts the door and walks away, leaving me sitting in the dark, my chest aching and fists clenched. Before I can decide between storming her house and refusing to leave or going home and drinking myself into oblivion, my phone rings. I put it to my ear without checking the caller ID. “Hello?”
“Oh, thankgodyou answered, Declan.” My mother’s panicked voice fills my ear, making me sit up straight, immediately imagining the worst.
“What is it? What happened?”
She lets out a choked sob. “It’s your father. He’s been arrested!”
I stare at a spot on the wall, replaying the fuckfest of an evening on repeat. It’s not that I wasn’t expecting my father’s arrest, but having it land right after it felt like Lily had eviscerated me was brutal.
I don’t want you to see something that might hurt you.
“You moved in here when you got back from Hawaii, right?”
I look over at Darcy as she looks around the living room, gaze landing pointedly on the stacks of boxes pushed back against the wall. “What’s your point?”
She meets my stare, blinking innocently. “No point, not really. Uh, just…love what you’ve done with the place. The feng shui is unreal.” She jabs a thumb over her shoulder toward the kitchen. “The ceramics littering the floor of the kitchen?” She does achef’s kisswith her fingers, ignoring the daggers I’m flinging her way. “Can’t imagine what you could’ve done differently. Some people might use cupboards,but you? Nah. Just smash all the plates. I know you’re enjoying the new lifestyle of an unemployed bum, but maybe interior decorating is the career path for you.”
Nolan comes into the room, digging into a cereal box with a frown. “I disagree,” he grumbles. “I could use a plate right about now. And why the fuck is your fridge empty? You don’t even have milk.”
“I didn’t invite either of you assholes here,” I gripe. “If you don’t like it, go stay at the hotel with Mom.” I lean my head back against the couch, feeling fucking exhausted. “Why’re you both here?”
“Because why get a hotel room when our brother has a perfectly good condo to house us while the feds raid our home?” Darcy reasons.
“A condo with one bed,” I point out.
“Which leads to my next question. Why is it—” she gestures at the bed base still leaning against the living room floor. “And the mattress. Are you still a bedwetter or are you planning on killing someone on it?”
“Careful, Darce,” Nolan mutters. “I think his head might actually explode.”
“Well, if he moves over to his plastic-wrapped mattress, it’ll be an easy clean-up.”
“There’s nowhere for the two of you to sleep,” I grit out, eyelid twitching. “And it probably wasn’t a great idea to leave Mom on her own. So, if you could just kindlyfuck…off…”
Darcy waves a flippant hand. “She popped a couple of valium, and was out before we left.”
I sigh. “How was she?”
They share a solemn look before Nolan says, “As well as you could expect. You know she’s never really let herself think too hard about Dad and who he really is.”
“Much good it did us,” I mutter bitterly.
Darcy straightens, her glare turning razor-sharp. “Don’t put this on her. She might live with her head buried in the sand, but we’ve always known who she is. You made choices here, Declan, and they affected all of us, including her.” She sits next to me, her hand grabbing mine. “Maybe if you hadn’t kept this all to yourself, things could have turned out differently.” Nolan scoffs doubtfully, and she concedes with a nod. “Okay, not differently, but we could have hadsomewarning.”
“How long have you been collecting evidence?” Nolan asks quietly.
I chew on my lip, eyes flicking between the two of them. “A year. I started digging after?—”
“After he sicced you on Lily,” Nolan finishes. “That’s when everything changed, huh?”
I tip my chin up. “I should never have let him manipulate me into it, knowing everything he was asking me to do went against my moral compass—both personally and professionally. I knew it was wrong, and I never fully understood his desire to raze Hi-Tech to the ground, but…”
“Why did you go through with it?” Darcy asks. “You knew she’d find out eventually.”
