I snatched the phone, already irritated. “Yeah!”
“Merge, please don’t hang up! I just… I need to talk to you.”
Zonnique.
My finger hovered over the red button.
“Unless you miraculously became pregnant with my child, we have nothing to talk about.”
“I found an alternative!” she blurted quickly, like she could hear my patience thinning through the phone. “I can’t go into detail over the phone, but it’s real… no games. Can we just meet?”
Silence stretched between us.
“Please,” she added softly, her voice shaky with what sounded dangerously close to desperation. “Just one meeting. That’s all I’m asking.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, jaw tightening hard enough to ache.
“One hour. Come to the house.”
I hung up before she could respond.
The phone landed on the bed while I pushed myself up and headed toward the shower, exhaustion weighing heavier than usual in my bones.
My thoughts moved faster than the hot water warming behind the walls.
What’s her angle this time?
How the hell did she find a solution to something I couldn’t?
Whatever she has to say better be worth my time, because I’m running out of options… and patience.
***
The deep, custom door chime echoed through the house right on schedule.
I took a slow sip from the glass in my hand before setting it down beside me. Ice clinked sharply against crystal, the sound bouncing through the otherwise silent room.
For a moment, I didn’t move, I just listened.
I already hated that Zonnique was coming, but curiosity had gotten the better of me.
A second later, the butler opened the door.
Two sets of footsteps entered: one I recognized immediately, the other was lighter, slower, and too comfortable for somebody stepping into my house for the first time.
My irritation flared instantly.
The moment I stepped into the foyer, I knew some bullshit was waiting on me.
Zonnique had that familiar guilty look plastered across her face that she wore right before terrible ideas revealed themselves. Beside her stood a woman I’d never seen before in my life, who was looking entirely too calm for my liking.
My hand moved before my thoughts fully caught up. I pulled out my gun smoothly and aimed it between both of them.
“Who the fuck is this?” I demanded to know, my eyes slowly scanning the stranger from head to toe.
Zonnique straightened quickly, fingers twisting together anxiously. “Merge, please! Let me explain first!”
I stared at her coldly.
