Page 117 of Between Desire and Denial
“Too much curiosity.” I smiled menacingly at him now. “Funny, though, because Mom loved it. She loved you too. God, she stupidly loved you through the cheating, the lying, even bringing you into the society like you deserved to be there. She must have been so scared, knowing she was leaving us with you.”
“Watch it, Olive.”
“No.” I felt the tears then, felt them spring to my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them run over. “I held her hand. I read her books, I sang her songs, Dad. Where were you?”
“I was–”
“You were with Georgette!” I shook with rage. “Were you two planning your freaking wedding while your kids cried over their dying mother in the next room? Were you planning this deal all along?”
“Hey, now. I lost a wife too,” he said like he was remorseful for a second.
“You did.” I sniffed and stood up straighter. “You lost her the moment you ruined her trust in you. You left her for Georgette because you weren’t strong enough to stand by her side.”
“I tried,” he growled before he paced away from me before turning back. “I didn’t want to see her waste away, Olive. It was difficult and—”
“I know it was difficult. I witnessed it. I saw how she lost so much weight that her high cheek bones hollowed out. I saw how her curls fell from her skull. How every breath she took became ragged. I went there every day after school, sat there doing schoolwork remotely when it got too bad and I didn’t want to risk going to school. I witnessed the fear in her eyes every day when she told me to go live my life after she was gone, like she knew being here with you would be too much. I saw though her love for you drain from her eyes and that might have been the most difficult.”
“Well…” My father didn’t even really argue his piece anymore. What could he even say? “I tried to provide for you. Now, I have a new family to provide for, and Knox and Georgette need me and the Diamond Syndicate. So, you need to leave.”
“You think I’m just going to leave?”
“Look, you’re blurring Knox’s focus. He needed a reminder, okay?”
“A reminder of what?” I whispered but suddenly I knew. I didn’t even need to ask.
My father had done something I’d never forgive him for. He sighed and his gaze darted behind me like he was considering his words as Dimitri stood there. Then he scratched his jaw. “The doctors say he’s doing fine. He’ll be okay, and we’re going to make sure no batch from the Irish is laced with anything anymore. I didn’t think he’d have this reaction, but we can’t back out of our deal with them, Olive. You understand right? The HEAT empire cannot—”
“Wait a second.” I stopped him, holding up a hand. “Please tell me you weren’t a part of your own son ODing, Dad.”
There was too much silence before he started to spew words that didn’t matter. “Look, it’s not what you think. Knox was just providing information for neighboring less-fortunate communities, and we wanted to know what the atmosphere was like atthoseschools. The boy needed purpose. And we needed him to experiment a little with the drugs. I… It was Earl’s idea. He thought—”
“You’re a monster,” I whispered, feeling a rage in me so ferocious I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to stand there with him for a second longer. I knew I had to though, knew I had to know everything. “You broke the whole code of the Diamond Syndicate. To keep our community clean. To protect it. To protect your family. You didn’t.”
“Thisisprotecting it. There’s no way around the mob anymore. They have their hands in everything. We pick and choose our battles as a society, and we evolve to be better.”
I pushed past him, not willing to hear the excuses. There were none. Instead, I went to the nurse and asked for my brother’s room number. “Are you family?”
“His sister.”
“Right now we are asking that only—”
“This is a HEAT hospital correct?” Dimitri murmured behind me.
I jumped at his voice. I’d almost forgotten he stood back and told me I was strong enough to say what I had to my father. He didn’t interfere. He believed in me enough to know I could handle it on my own.
I leaned into his touch as he said, “I’m Dimitri Hardy. Check your security detail and let me scan my watch. I have access where needed within this building, as does my wife.”
The nurse moved the scanner out to him and Dimitri held his wrist over the device. It beeped green. She then glanced at my wrist.
Dimitri rolled his eyes. “Had a feeling they might ask.” He slid a small watch that looked almost like a Rolex but with a digital screen as the face of it onto my wrist. “Scan.”
I narrowed my eyes. How could he have known? But the device beeped green.
As we walked away, I murmured, “Your wife?”
He murmured back, “You might have been faking this relationship a while back, but I wasn’t. And you’re going to marry me one day soon, Honeybee. Might as well start using the wife pronoun now.”
“But you got me a watch when?”
