Page 124 of Show Me How
The muscles in Sterling’s jaw twitch when he tracks my movements. “If you don’t go get her for me, I’ll do it myself.”
“Like fucking hell you will,” I spit, my patience fraying. “You so much as touch the door to my studio and I’ll break your hand.”
“Threatening me isn’t wise.”
I do laugh this time. It’s dark, vibrating with the anger that I’m trapping down. The thought of letting Millie leave with this guy—of losing her already—is enough to have me so far out of my body I’m not sure how I’ll get back inside of it.
“The only threat here is you. She’s here for a reason, and it isn’t because I’ve stolen her away from the life she had with you.”
Past his shoulder, the diner door swings open.
My nails dig into my forearms when I spot the man stepping outside. I don’t need verbal confirmation as to who he is. One look at his blond combover and teal-coloured golf shirt, and I know exactly who the man Sterling brought with him today is. Who he is to Millie.
My patience is so close to snapping, I should go inside before it’s too late.
“Mr. Harrington? Why haven’t we gone in yet? She wasn’t at the diner. Although I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s rather filthy.”
I stay right where I am, fleeing no longer an option.
When Chadwick reaches Sterling, he glances at me, blinking a few times. The slight curl of his lip as he runs a judgmental gaze down my body doesn’t exactly help my desire to decorate the street with his white teeth.
“Are you the owner?” he asks me, much more open with his emotions than Millie’s father.
I can hear every vibration of disgust in his voice.
“Is your name really Chadwick, or is that just a joke? A playground tease that just stuck?” I ask with a fake sense of calm.
He glares at me then, brown eyes deepening. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t fall into his games, Chadwick. Millicent is inside, and we need to get her,” Sterling chastises.
“Millicent?” I ask, stumbling slightly.
Her father simply stares at me in genuine shock. “Did you think Millie was her full name?”
“It is to me.”
He scoffs under his breath, and then his features smooth out. His attention drifts behind me to the window. My entire body tenses when I twist as much as I can manage and find Millie at the door. She pushes it open quickly, rushing outside before coming to a sudden stop.
“Millicent,” her father snaps, his cool expression twisting into annoyance in the blink of an eye. “How could you do this? Are you living here?”
The lash of his words hits the mark. In one moment, all of the work she’s put into herself these last few months crumbles. I lurch toward her, making myself a shield between her and thetwo men who had her running here in the first place. Softly, I grasp her shoulders and rub my palms down her arms.
She stares at me, her eyes wide and so unbelievably sad. Her hands rise between us before settling against my chest.
“Don’t let him do this to you,” I murmur, keeping the words soft, just for her. “He doesn’t have a say anymore.”
“Millie—who is this man?”
Chadwick’s voice bounces off my back, and I exhale through my nose. Millie taps my chest over the fresh tattoo she gave me before dropping her hands. The smile she gives me isn’t real. It’s the same plastic one she wears when she feels like she can’t be herself. The sight of it twists my stomach.
She moves from my hold, and I let her go, refusing to trap her like everyone else has done.
“How are you here?” she asks the men.
Her father looks at her then.Reallylooks, as if he’s seeing her for the first time. She may have dressed in her usual armour—a pink dress with her high heels—but that’s the only thing about her that’s stayed the same all these weeks.
There’s a natural glow to her cheeks now, and her hair is longer, the ends split slightly. She’s lost the tights she used to make herself wear beneath her skirts and dresses, and only a blind man would miss the crown on her wrist as she lifts her hand and tucks her hair behind her ear.
