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You’d think the house I just spent the last month in with the only blood family I have left would be my home, but it’s not. It hasn’t been for a long time. Maybe it never was.
The familiar door in front of me has my heart rate skyrocketing. My fingers wrap around the doorknob, and my eyes catch on the tattoo etched into my knuckles.
Home.
I glance at my other hand, my fingers flexing.
Sick.
No, Divinity wasn’t my home at all.
I push through the door, the scent of tomatoey pasta sauce filling the air. A smile breaks across my face at the sound of laughter bouncing against the vaulted ceilings. I let the door close silently behind me and step inside, my smile growing as my gaze snags on the plant Chase threw up in all those weeks ago.
I chuckle to myself, running my hand through my hair.
Fuck, time has flown by.
“Oli!” my best friend screeches, and my head snaps up, finding Chase gaping down at his sister, his arms outstretched wide, his favorite Kiss the Influencer apron covered in red sauce. “What the fuck?”
I freeze, watching as she innocently grins up at him, a spatula dangling precariously from her hands. She shrugs as she pops it into her mouth.
“Sorry.” Her words are muffled, the sauce dribbling down her chin.
Smirking, I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the wall, content to watch them silently, remaining unnoticed.
Chase grunts and smears the sauce down his cheek with a glare. Meanwhile, Eve does her best to keep from laughing, her eyes wide, her cheeks pink, and her pretty lips tucked between her teeth.
My chest warms at the sight of them all together and I wonder if this is what family is really supposed to look like, to sound like. The only thing that would make it better would be if—
Kon stomps into the kitchen, his bare feet slapping against the floor. My mouth drops open as I take him in, his black t-shirt tight against his massive chest, his hair tied up in a small bun on the top of his head, and grey sweats wrapped around his thick legs. But it’s not the comfortable attire he’s wearing that has me so shocked, it’s the fucking possum strapped to his chest.
Kon, my grumpy asshole of a boss, is wearing Robert the way Oli usually does. Despite the irritated look on his face, his tattooed hand runs over the creature's furry head while the other supports a baby bottle in Robert’s mouth.
“What the hell is going on in here?” he grumbles. His eyes widen when he sees the mess Oli made. He lets out long sigh, shaking his head. “I’m not cleaning that shit up.”
Olive scoffs and rolls her eyes. She points the spatula at him and her lip lifts in a smirk. “Last I heard,” she drawls, flicking her gaze to Chase, “you love cleaning sticky messes off my brother.”
Eve loses it then, a loud laugh bursting from deep inside her. I watch enraptured as her head falls back, her long golden-blonde curls dancing with her movements. I swallow thickly, the sight of her hitting me down to my bones.
Fuck, she’s so beautiful. Like sunshine and light.
The thought has a memory pressing in and my fingers slide into my pocket, gripping my lighter tightly as I breathe through it.
The door slams behind me as I barrel into my room, my chest heaving, my back burning with every shift of my muscles. My hands tremble, my heart thundering, and my mind whirling.
I can’t believe he just did that—here, now.
I thought it’d stop when they moved in. I didn’t think he’d have the balls to do it with Jane and Eve so close.
But he did.
I swallow roughly and bat the traitorous tears streaming down my face away.
“Be a man!” he’d commanded, and I tried. Fuck, I tried. But every time he yells at me, every time he stands over me, every fucking time he takes me to that place, I’m a small child again.
“No punishment seems pleasant at the time, but painful.”
The words run on repeat through my mind, and as much as I wish I could, I can’t stop them.
