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“Then I’ll ask them how do they think they got here? It sure as hell wasn’t the stork.”
Delphine’s amusement fades away for a deeper, more thoughtful expression. She rests a hand on my chest, feeling my heartbeat. “About what we were saying earlier… our home.”
“We’re moving, Phi. We’ll find a place of our own. It makes sense for us to have a new home that’s ours.”
“It means a lot to me you’re willing to move to Westoria.”
“It’ll be a better environment for a family. We’ll be away from the city noise and crime.”
She smirks at me. “You’ll have to deal with the snobs.”
I shrug. “We’ll build fencing so high I won’t ever have to see them.”
“You are so antisocial!”
“Phi, we’ve been over this. I like about three people in this world. You being one of them. You really think I’m going to be attending social mixers at some prick’s mansion in Westoria?”
“No,” she answers. She presses a kiss into my chest. “I wouldn’t want you to, anyway. I know you’d be miserable.”
“See. You get it.”
“One of the first things that stuck out to me the night I attended your party so many years ago was that you weren’t around. Your own party. You were happier upstairs away from everyone. But I like that about you… believe it or not. That you’re selective of who you associate with. It intrigued me from the start.”
She hugs me and buries her face into me. I hold her in return, my hand gliding up and down her back. Something else has risen to the surface of my thoughts. Our talk about the future and our new home has me wanting to address something from our recent past.
“Phi,” I say. “This next chapter will be good for us. A new environment will help us build our lives.”
She nods her agreement and makes a sound in her throat.
“But it’s important we don’t ignore the mistakes we’ve made.”
“If this is about the danger your lifestyle brings—”
“No,” I interrupt, piercing her with a stare she won’t be able to break. “I’m talking about what you’ve been hiding. Why didn’t you tell me about your nightmares? Why didn’t you tell me about what was going on with Sasha Newton and Polk?”
Some would say it’s a mistake for me to bring the matters up. That I should let it go now that we’ve established a way forward.
I couldn’t disagree more—if Delphine and I are to be in a better place, then we need to recognize where we’ve failed.
“Jon…” she lets out a quick nervous laugh as if she’s not sure whether I’m serious. “I didn’t tell you about Sasha Newton and Polk because I knew it’d piss you off. I had to help Sasha and I wasn’t going to let you get sent away to prison.”
“And your nightmares?”
“You know I get them.”
“Then why not mention it? Stitches told me he’s found you like that more than once.”
She shakes her head and lets go of her hold on me, like she’s about to scoot away. “I don’t get why you’re bringing this up now.”
“When I was in jail,” I say slowly, “I was sent to the Box for a week.”
“Iknow. Which is why I worked very hard to free you.”
“That’s not what I mean. Phi, I told myself when my bail was denied that I could handle jail. It would only be a few months. I’ve been through worst shit. And when I was sent to the Box, I told myself the same—they wouldn’t break me,” I explain, trying my damnedest to word my thoughts and emotions. Something Delphine has always wished I’d do. “But… it was harder than I thought it would be. It… it fucked with me being in there. It brought back memories of what happened with Lucius.”
Her eyes immediately fill with concern. I push on before she can say anything.
“I kept replaying what happened in my head. Being confined to a tight, dark space. Being at someone else’s mercy. I saw you in that robe and I heard Lucius’s laugh. I thought I was going crazy. There wasn’t a lot of mental stimulation in the Box. It’s like I was left alone with the skeletons in my closet. It made me realize… it’s stayed with me even when I didn’t think it had.”
