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We entered the great room with Alaric’s arm still wrapped around me. I confirmed right away that the man was older. He had graying hair and age marks on his hands. His attention was trained on the ocean outside. Hearing us come in he turned with a smile already on his face.
His brown eyes went wide when they landed on me. If they got any larger, I’m sure they’d pop out of his head.
“What the hell is this?”
Taken aback by his hostile tone, I subconsciously leaned closer to Alaric.
“First, watch your mouth and tone in front of her. Second, what does it look like, John?”
John? I faltered and studied the man through a clinical eye. Surely, he wasn’t…
“It looks like your f—moving on with Meagan’s sister.”
“Moved on,” Alaric corrected coldly.
He guided me over to the piano and gestured to the bench. “Sit here.”
I didn’t know what the hell was happening right now. I sat and focused my gaze on the black and white keys.
“Why with her?”
The her was practically spat out of his mouth. I didn’t know anything about this man other than he was an asshole.
“I have my reasons. Drastically different than yours. You’ve been continuing to fuck her mother behind your wife’s back all these years.”
I could have choked on my saliva. My mom was still sleeping with this man after he’d kicked her out onto the streets while pregnant with me? She talked so much shit about him. She said she hated him for never being in my life.
“No! I would never--.”
“Give it up Johnathon. She’s had a PI on you for the last year. We’ve spoken a few times this last month.”
I struggled to follow their exchange. These two were not on good terms so why had he invited him? I didn’t feel any happiness at seeing this deadbeat. He was a stranger to me, a carrier of donor sperm.
“What am I doing here, Alaric?” Johnathon asked with a sigh.
“You’re here to listen to her play.”
“What?” he voiced my own confusion.
“Exactly as I said,” he replied to him. Then leaning down, he took hold of my hands and placed them on the piano. “Play something nice. Don’t stop until I say so,” he murmured in my ear.
I had no idea what was going on right now. At a loss, I eyed the sheet music still on display from a few weeks ago and began to re-create the melody. The haunting tune-filled every corner of the house, drowning out what began to occur in the other half of the room.
There wasn’t anything else to focus on or think about when I played other than the music and all the things you could learn from it, often about yourself. It was an expressive form of therapy I often took advantage of these days.
Just me and this big, beautiful machine.
When Alaric placed his hands on my shoulders to stop, I jumped at his touch, too caught up in what I was doing to have realized he was behind me. The notes ran together in a cringe-jarring sound as my fingers slipped.
“You play so beautifully. You lose yourself in it as I do. I love watching you purge your soul.”
I swallowed the emotion that had crept up my throat while I was playing and looked over to where Johnathon had been sitting.
“Did he leave?”
“He’ll be joining the others soon.”
I turned that over in my head twice before understanding his meaning. I spun towards him, bringing my legs out from beneath the piano.
“Alaric--.”
“You don’t have to participate in this right now.”
“That’s not what I was going to say anything about. Johnathon Penn isn’t some random man off the streets. How are you going to hide his disappearance?”
“Cat.” He thumbed my chin and peered down at me with a warm smile, his blue eyes full of an emotion I couldn’t place. “Are you worried about me?”
“I’m being serious.”
“So am I. I never do things irrationally or spur of the moment. This has been a long time coming. I have a few helping hands.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know how many times he’d done something like this. It was probably better that I let him keep that to himself for now.
“Is this because of Meg?”
He ran a thumb over my cheek, shaking his head from side to side. “I wish we could stop talking about her. I only agreed to marry her so that I could keep tabs on John.”
“Tabs?” I placed my hand over his and held it to my face.
“My father made the mistake of giving him shares in DG. We have a certain…side business that John began funneling funds from. He tried to use DG as a cover but for…reasons, we keep our books and records immaculate. It was time for him to go.”
“But…what does that have to do with me.”
