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“Layla is pregnant, and she doesn’t know if the baby is Archer’s or Caden’s…” I trail off, my eyes drifting to the floor. “She was sleeping with both of them.”
My heart tenses in my chest as I utter the words that I don’t want to acknowledge but can’t deny now there’s possibly physical proof of their intimacy.
He inhales slowly, holding it for a long beat before blowing it out. “Well, that’s a pickle, Summer. That right there is a scandal in the making.”
My eyes shoot back up to search his face.
“We’ll need to get ahead of this.” His eyes drift towards the floor, and I can almost see the cogs of his brain working on figuring a way out of the mess.
“Archer’s or Caden’s, it doesn’t matter. The grandchild of Sutton North needs two parents.” His eyes raise to mine just as a frown crosses my face.
I’m not stupid. I know what he’s saying, but I need him to say the words.
“I’m afraid, dear girl, you’ll need to be removed from the picture entirely.”
My mouth falls open, and I round on him, shrugging his hand off my arm.
“I didn’t confide everything to you, Uncle Noah, so that you could send me away. I’m not going anywhere. I—I can’t. I love him. Heneedsme.”
All signs of kindness drop from his features as unusual selfishness reign supreme on the face of the man I’ve called family since I was old enough to walk.
“Do you think Caden will want a damn thing to do with you once I tell him the part you played in his brother’smurder?”
I suck in a horrified breath, nausea swirling in the pit of my stomach as terror constricts my throat. I barely manage to choke out a question. “Uncle Noah, why are you saying that?”
He carries on as though I’ve not spoken. “How about I make you a little deal, hmm? I’ll help you disappear—to a place of your choosing—I’m not a complete monster—and in return for my silence, you’ll go quietly.”
His eyes hold mine, and the horrifying sincerity in his gaze shocks me to my core. “If you insist on sticking around, I’ll tell everyone—Sutton, Clarisse…Caden—”
He smirks at my sharp inhalation before continuing. “I’ll tell them you’re the reason their son, Caden’stwin,is dead. Do you think any of your loved ones will look at you the same again when they know? When they realise what you are.”
Tears fill my vision, hearing the truth of his words as I drop my gaze to the floor, watching my tears land on the kitchen tiles one by one.
“You’re a murderer, Summer. However you want to sugar-coat it.Youare the reason Archer North is dead and buried.”
And then he hammers the final nail into the coffin.
“They’d have no choice but to call the authorities. You’d wind up in prison, and I doubt the inmates would take kindly to a kid killer, my dear girl.”
My tears continue to fall, landing silently on the tiles beneath us. My brain is whirring frantically, desperately trying to find a way out of this mess and coming up with nothing. The tears fall faster, and it feels difficult to breathe.
“Do you really think you’d be able to share Caden anyway? It would kill you to stick around here and watch him play house with another girl’s kid, Summer. Be smart about this.”
He places his hand on my shoulder once more, but this time the gesture isn’t even one-tenth as comforting as it was before. “You can have a life away from here. I’ll make sure of it.”
I raise my tear-streaked face to him as he speaks again. “Trust me.”
* * *
“I made my decision and packed a small bag. Uncle Noah—”
“Would youstopcalling him that, for fuck’s sake! After the part he’s fucking played, you can drop the ‘Uncle,’ yeah?” His words are a vicious snarl, so far removed from his usual self that I feel myself visibly recoiling in my seat.
I swallow heavily. “Noahwent to get a car, but I…Ineededto see you one last time.”
* * *
The hallway is silent, Archer’s room devoid of snoring, so I move on further down the eerily silent hallway towards Caden’s bedroom, where I find him staring at a picture in the middle of his bed.
