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“I guess we’re just one big, happy family, then.”
“Thank you,” she says as I’m walking out the door. “For allowing this.”
I’d tell her she’s welcome, but why bother?
I never had a fucking choice to begin with.
30
ILARION
I finally make my way to the den. Most nights, I ignore my bedroom in favor of this room. It’s quieter in here. The walls are thick enough to keep out all the unwelcome reminders of the life I’d rather be living.
But when I walk in, it becomes immediately obvious that there’s no peace to be found anywhere today.
“Mila.”
She’s sitting in my chair with her legs propped up on my desk. She pivots the chair to face my direction and gives me a pointed smile. “Hey there, big brother. Kept your seat warm for you.”
I walk over to the sofa and throw myself down on it. “Lucky for you, I need to lie the fuck down.”
She doesn’t respond. When I look up again, she’s standing over me, gazing down with a curious gleam in her eyes. “Well, what the hell did you expect, bringing them back?”
“You see why I did, though.”
“Adam’s worth it,” she agrees. “He’s an angel. He’s going to be your spitting image when he gets older.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“But let’s be honest,” she says bluntly. “This was never just about him.”
“I can’t go on like this,” I admit. Because if I can’t admit it to her, who can I be honest with? “The first few years, the promise I made to her mother pushed me forward. But now…I fucked up.”
“You fucked up by making the promise?” Mila clarifies.
“No, I fucked up by letting that promise take over my life. Celine and I…living here in this house…it’s wrong.”
“You did that for a reason. Benedict was acting under the misguided assumption that Celine was going to be your wife. That sheisyour wife. He would have come after her regardless.”
“I was there, Mila,” I snarl angrily. “I fucking remember. I just can’t, for the life of me, remember why I thought it was a good idea.”
“Jaded, are we?”
“You’re one to talk.”
She smirks and perches on the coffee table opposite me. “The men are unhappy,” she informs me, changing the subject to yet another one I’m loathe to discuss.
“Don’t remind me of that, either.”
“Having Archie here is an insult to the rules that bind this brotherhood together. We lost a lot of men because of what Archie did. I’ve heard rumblings.”
“What kind of rumblings?”
“The kind that suggest, if you don’t punish the man, they will.”
I sit up and drop my feet off the sofa. “They wouldn’t dare.”
“They feel that your hands are tied. They figure going rogue in this case might not earn them a severe punishment.” She cocks a brow. “And Archie is a good example of why they’re pretty sure you’ll go easy.”
