Page 85 of Evil Queen

“I don’t get it,” Cherri whimpered.

I smiled at her. “Let’s just say I’ve pretty much tapped out their reserves for patience in that particular area. We’re gonna say we forgive you and leave it at that.”

As the words left my lips, I thought about Brayden and wondered if I would feel the same about him. I was still refusing to think about the fact that he’d betrayed us because if I thought about it too hard, I was going to fall into another deep, dark hole.

“I just feel like that’s too easy,” Cherri replied. “I mean…” She looked over Colette. “I hurt you so badly.”

“Yeah, but Nikki got to kick your ass back, so that’s good enough for me,” Colette said, then looked over at Nikita and flashed her a wink.

“Oh my god,” Jaxon said breathlessly. He stood up, slinging Colette over his back. “Sorry. We’ll be back.”

Colette giggled as Jaxon carried her off toward the stairs. Alistair pointed up after them. “You did say that Sicily’s room is soundproof, right?”

“Yeah, but down here isn’t,” I grumbled back.

“So, they’re a thing now?” Cherri asked. “Like, a real thing?”

She looked at Avery for the answer, and Avery smiled. “Yeah, they’re crazy about each other. She’s made him a bit more sociable, and as you can see, he’s made her a bit tougher. It’s really sweet.”

Cherri frowned. “I’m sad that I missed it.”

“I said you were missing out on a lot,” I replied.

She nodded. “Yeah. I was just so angry and sad. I miss Deon, and I wanted to blame someone for everything that happened. Not just with Deon, but with Miss Abrams and with Deon’s disappearance to begin with.”

“Disappearance?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“Back when Deon first got arrested, we were having a picnic for our first date, and this body, quite literally, fell from the sky and splattered in front of us. Deon walked over to see if the guy was okay, and some cop started screaming at us, saying we did it. We had no choice but to run, and I guess Deon doubled back to protect me.”

“Oh, wow,” Avery said. “I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah. I didn’t find out until right before shit hit the fan.”

Kyle looked up at me from where he was sitting. “So some guy just randomly splats on the ground in front of your half-brother, and then he goes to prison for it. Then, four years later, some woman jumped out of a building that also had nothing to do with him, and he got blamed for it again?”

“Shit,” I hissed.

I didn’t know everything about what had happened, but it was becoming clearer that my father was to blame for all of our troubles, not just recently, but even back then. What didn’t make sense to me was that if my dad did set Deon up four years ago, why would he have done it? I thought he was waiting for Deon to come back, judging by the preserved room and the spot at the company. Now it seemed more like he was trying to take him out.

“Nathan,” Cherri said weakly.

I looked up at her. “Cherri, I’m so sorry for everything that I’ve put you through and that my family has put you through. I can’t beg your forgiveness forever, but—”

“You’re forgiven. I know what happened back then wasn’t you, and now I see the pressure you were under. I don’t know how you didn’t break sooner.”

“I’ve made peace with the stain I’ll always have, so I can’t just be a stool forever while I try to make it up to you, but is there anything I can do? Anything?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “You can tell me if Deon is alive.”

I looked back at her, trying my best to maintain my poker face. I could see Kyle eyeing me and could feel Nikita’s gaze on the back of my head. My mind drifted to the bedroom upstairs, Deon’s old room, the one I’d prepared for Deon and Cherri to stay in together one day if it became possible. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand why Deon wanted Cherri out of the loop, but if my relationship with Nikita had taught me anything, it was that the love that two people share is strong enough to overcome any obstacle. The way Cherri loved Deon and the way he loved her was the kind of force that was going to get us through whatever challenges and traps my father had set up for us in the days ahead, but only if they were together.

“Yes,” I said finally, and Cherri doubled over. She let out a sigh of relief, and I could see tears dripping from her eyes.

She looked up at me, and grief and desperation were written all over her face. “Where?”

“Wait,” Avery said, looking over at me. “Deon’s alive?”

“Yeah,” I said to her and then looked to Cherri again. “I don’t know where he is, though. I swear. He and I have been communicating on and off, but…” My stomach churned as I prepared to tell her the next part. “About, I don’t know, four weeks ago—maybe more, I can’t remember—Deon called me to check in. We were talking, and the line went dead all of a sudden. He hasn’t called back since. Kyle can verify.”

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