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9 black cards. No names. Just numbers.
One ticket to Greece.
And pictures. Our pictures together. Pictures we’d taken when we went zip-lining and swimming with the sharks. There was a note on one of the pictures.
I don’t want you to be afraid or chose me because you have no other choice. So run, Coraline. Keep having fun. My uncle will let you stay until tomorrow night. But if you stay past that, he will take you as a threat.
Thank you and be safe.
Declan.
I noticed all too clearly that he didn’t write ‘PS. I love you’ this time.
“What the hell happened?”
I glanced up as my uncle came inside.
“Your daughter killed someone, and then she ran off with her boyfriend. But not before he broke my mother’s vase and got a good hit in.”
He looked around the room in shock before looking to me.
“I heard about the accident from your aunt. It won’t look good for the company if this gets out. We will lose clients. I know a guy at the police station, and for the right price he can make this look like a freak accident. Then we can donate to—”
“You’re not going to ask me if I’m alright?” I questioned softly. “I’m covered in blood siting on the ground on. Shouldn’t the first question you ask me be, ‘are you all right?’ If not as your niece, then at least as your ATM. Shouldn’t that be the normal reaction to this situation?”
He paused and I guessed it only dawned on him this wasn’t okay. He looked me over as he opened his mouth and closed it again, like a fish.
“I’ll give you the choice. Me or the bank.”
“What?” He paused.
“Which one?”
“The bank,” he replied without even having to think.
I nodded, not even surprised or hurt.
Ever since my parents died, I had been alone. Surrounded by people, but alone. What was the point in being a good person if you just ended up being run over by a bad one? Lifting up a picture of me in Cancun, I stared at myself. I’d been so happy then. It felt like it had been forever since that time, but it wasn’t, it was still waiting for me. If everyone was going being to be selfish, if everyone was just going to do what they wanted anyway, then why couldn’t I?
There were three choices in front of me.
Lifting the passport I stood up and walked past him.
“You really going to give it to me?” he yelled after me, but I didn’t answer.
First shower.
Then pack.
THIRTEEN
“Life has to end, she said. Love doesn't.”
?Mitch Albom
DECLAN
Two weeks.
You think I would’ve been over it. Over her, but once you knew what it was like to be truly happy, to feel like you were standing right next to the sun without getting burned, how can anyone go back to being in the dark?
“Declan?”
I glanced up at Evelyn. She and everyone else were staring at me. It felt like the first night when I came to live here. Everyone kept hovering over me at dinner.
“You alright?” she asked me kindly.
“He’s fine,” Sedric answered as he cut into his steak.
“I would prefer to hear it from him.” She glared at him. She was the only one that could get away with that.
“I’m fine,” I repeated.
“See?” Sedric chewed. “Let me know when she’s gone.”
“Of course.” I nodded as I placed my fork down. “May I be excus—?”
“Master Callahan?” Our butler stepped into the dining room, arms folded behind his back.
“What is it, Samuel?” Sedric placed his fork down.
“There’s a woman here for Master Declan,” he said looking to me. “A Miss Coraline Wilson.”
I got up so quickly that the chair fell over. I was out the door, knowing that Samuel wouldn’t have let her inside without permission. The rain soaked my clothes, but I didn’t care. She stood staring up at the house under a green umbrella, dressed in a peach-colored lace dress. A taxi was parked right behind her.
“Cora?” I grabbed her attention as I stepped in front of her.
She lifted the umbrella higher for the both of us to stand under.
“Hi.” She smiled.
“I don’t understand?” I was afraid to get too happy.
She pulled out a passport and handed it to me.
“You told me to have fun, but I don’t know how to do that without you, so you’re going to have to keep teaching me. I want stamps too.”
I took the passport from her. But she needed to be sure.
“Coraline, I can’t change who am or what I do—”
“I know. I’ll do what everyone else does and look away. Is that good enough?”
All I could do was nod as I grabbed the sides of her face and kissed her the way I had dreamt of for the last two weeks. She kissed me back, but only shortly before breaking away. I noticed that one of her eyes seemed a little swollen. As I gently brushed my thumb against it, she winced.
“You’re going to ruin my make up,” she said softly.
“What happened to you?” I asked trying to stay calm in front of her.
“I’m fine—”
“Coraline, you being here means that you are mine. You are part of my family now. We don’t hide our pain from each other.”
She sighed. “Otis and I got into a fight when he left with Imani.”
“Is everything alright out here?”
Turning back, Sedric stood at the door with his hands in pockets as his hard gaze shifted between us. I took both the umbrella and her hand before I led her up the stairs.
“Dad, this is my girlfriend, Coraline Wilson.”
His eyebrow raised as he moved aside. “Welcome to Callahan Manor, Ms. Wilson.”
“Thank you, sir.” She stepped inside.
Evelyn, Neal, Olivia, and Liam all stood in front of the grand staircase and waited for Sedric to speak again.
“Ms. Wilson, this is my wife, Evelyn, I’m sure you remember her from the church,” he stated as Evelyn walked forward.
“Of course she remembers me!” she said to him as she hugged Coraline. “Welcome, dear. You look beautiful.”
“Thank you, ma’am—”
“Just Evelyn, we were in the middle of dinner. Have you eaten?”
“Not yet.”
Evelyn frowned. “In this house, Coraline, we always eat dinner together. If I didn’t force them to, they’d stuff their faces with fries and burgers until they died of heart attacks. Come now.”
Coraline looked back at me and I nodded to her as she headed into the dining room. Olivia kissed Neal on the cheek before she turned and followed as well, leaving only the men in the front of the house.
Sedric stepped in front me. “She’s yours now. Do you know what that means?”
I smiled as I nodded. “Protect, live, and die for her.”
“I better not hear you say that you rushed into this later,” he muttered as he squeezed my shoulder and headed back into the dining room.
“Dad,” I called out and he froze before he turned to face me. “Otis of the Seven Bloods, he hit her. What can I do?” I knew he already had a plan for the Seven Bloods.
