Alaric had never given me reason to distrust him, though.
The dozens of beautiful servers, dancers, and hostesses who worked at Orpheum had never concerned me anymore than the many beautiful women of Dominion did. He’d always made it clear with both words and actions that I was the only one who held his attention.
But there wassomethingSantos wasn’t saying. I knew it.
I glanced at the time. It was too early for him to be at Orpheum. “Where is he now?”
I shouldn’t have had to ask Santos this, and the fact I was only showed how much things had changed between my husband and myself. Santos hesitated, his eyes flicking to Angel before returning to meet my gaze. “He and the other heirs are at West Pointe office to meet with someone in I-A.”
I believed that. Santos was many things, but a good liar wasn’t one of them—at least not to me. Not anymore.
“You’re still not telling me something,” I murmured, voice dropping to ensure Niko wouldn’t pick up on any tension. “What’s going on at Orpheum that I shouldn’t see?”
Angel moved between us, having turned her burner off. “Maybe it’s just business, Selene. Dominion stuff.”
“Then he would have said that.” I pressed my palms against the cool marble counter. “He wouldn’t have Santos keep me away like I’m some kind of—.”
“It’s not like that,” Santos interrupted, his voice firm but gentle. “I’m doing this to keep you safe.”
I sighed and went to wash my hands. “Then you can keep me safe when we go there later.”
“Selene,” Santos began.
“You absolutely should go,” Angel interjected, loyalty flashing in her eyes.
I joined her at the counter, arranging Niko’s lunch across the divided sections of his Bluey plate. The toddler’s eyes widened at the spread—at not quite two, he already ate like a teenager. I added another handful of cut strawberries before carrying the plate to his highchair, pressing my lips against his soft curls.
“I’m going tonight,” I said, straightening to face Santos. “I’d prefer having you take me rather than dodging Wardens and Watchmen on my own.”
Santos’s expression hardened into resignation, his protective instinct visibly wrestling with reality. “I’ll be at your side the entire time.”
Angel’s eyes met mine. “I’ve got Niko tonight.”
“I appreciate—.”
“Don’t start,” she cut me off, voice gentle but firm. “This is what we do for each other.”
Something in her quiet certainty steadied me, even as doubt gnawed at my resolve. Part of me wanted to trust Alaric completely, to believe there was a reasonable explanation—hadn’t he earned that much?
Yet beneath that hope writhed a darker suspicion I couldn’t silence.
By tonight, whatever Alaric was hiding would be exposed—I’d make sure of it. Though my stomach twisted at what I might find.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Nikolai's tiny fists pounded against my chest as I passed him to Angel, his teething wails piercing my heart. The ghost of his warmth lingered on my arms while his cries echoed down the hallway, following me like an accusation.
Angel swayed with him, her expression gentle as she settled him against her hip. "He'll be fine. Go fix what needs fixing before you shatter completely."
"I'm holding it together," I replied, my voice betraying me.
I wasn't close to being fine.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized Alaric had vanished from our life leaving a ghost of himself in our home.
His dinner chair was perpetually empty, his side of the bed untouched. I found myself longing even for our ridiculous fights about which way the toilet paper should hang. The wall of silence he'd built was devouring us whole.
Somewhere, someone wise once said a closed mouth doesn’t get fed, so I was going to confront my husband, ask what was wrong. I had never been one to bite my tongue anymore. If there was a problem, I wanted to know up front. It wasn't like him to not be direct in the first place, which only gave me even bigger reason for concern.
