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“Don’t you turn this on me,” she retorts, getting to her feet. “This is about you being a selfish, manipulative liar.”
Her voice is more cold than it is furious. For some reason, this bothers me more.
Sighing, she shakes her head. “You know, I thought you were better than this.”
“I have one question. If I wasn’t a demon, would you be so convinced I had to be up to some great evil? Yes, so I had to resort to illegal methods to get Topside. But who cares? It’s not like I’m the only one. I’m not here possessing people or making it rain frogs, am I? You both got what you wanted, too, but now I’m the enemy?”
Her eyes widen, and she takes a step back in surprise. With an aggravated growl, I grab the ferret’s cage and carry him upstairs. I need to set up his house for Lucy.
“Argoss!” she calls after me, but I ignore her.
I provide her with anything she could ever want, and she responds by looking down on me? Who cares if I wasn’t honest with her? I’ve done nothing but make her life better.
I hear a rustling in her wing of the large house and pointedly ignore it, focusing my attention on building the cage. The sound of suitcase wheels rumbles down the hall and I grit my teeth.
She’s probably hoping I’ll chase her down and apologize. That I’ll take her in my arms and promise that from now on, I’ll tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me G – so help me.
I wouldn’t hold my breath.
A car door slams outside, and I hear the rev of a motor as she drives off. Good. I don’t want to see her face for a bit.
Once I’m done with the cage, I release the ferret to explore. I don’t care what Felicity says. Lucy will love this thing. And once Felicity sees how happy it makes her, she’ll come crawling back and admit she was wrong.
I feed the ferret and then head downstairs to pour myself a stiff drink. On the kitchen counter, I find a note.
Taking Lucy and leaving. Don’t follow. Will be back.
The paper bursts into flames as rage flares inside me. As long as we stay married, she can fuck off to wherever she wants, but Lucy is my daughter – my heir – too. I have a right to know where Felicity is taking her.
I whip out my phone to call her, but it goes straight to voicemail. Then I try location tracking her, but the location is off. Ordinarily, I’d be proud of her forethought, but right now, it’s a massive frustration.
I take a deep breath and tell myself that Felicity will be back. Sheneedsme. And if she doesn’t see that, I’ll win her back… somehow.
21
FELICITY
My knuckles are white as they grip the steering wheel. Two haphazardly packed suitcases sit in the back, and my eyes keep drifting to them before I remind myself to pay attention to the road. I’ve already called Sybil to let her know that I’m picking Lucy up.
Sybil is waiting for me on the lawn when I pull up the driveway, her brows furrowed in concern. “I wasn't expecting you back so soon. Everything okay, Felicity?”
I force a smile. “Yeah, everything’s fine.”
She studies my face, squinting suspiciously, but doesn’t push further. Instead, she puts her hand on my shoulder. “Well, the girls had a great time. If you want to reschedule for another night, they have big plans to make an all-fruit musical.”
I stare at her in disbelief, wondering if I heard wrong. She just shrugs. “I have as little idea what that means as you do, but I’m sure they’ll let you come to opening night when the show is ready.”
She opens the door. “Lucy, your mom’s here.”
While we all walk out to the car and she says her goodbyes, I set her backpack beside her usual seat. Then I take a moment tojust breathe and calm my racing heart. Leviathsport will give us plenty of opportunity to rest while I clear my head and figure out what to do next.
Lucy wordlessly gets into the car, and I drive off, my head still spinning with everything that’s happened since I dropped her off. It’s an hour drive to Leviathsport, which gives me some time to think.
Argoss is illegal, and that’s why he married me. Demons talk a lot about how the underworld is awful and how everything is better Topside. I don’t want him to literally go to hell, but I’m still upset. If he had just said from the start that it was a documentation issue instead of that weak excuse about how being married will open doors for him in business, maybe I would have been happy to help.
That’s not true, and you know it. You never would have said yes. He had to lie to get you to agree.
I shake my head, even though I’m only arguing with myself. Even if I would have said no, I had every right! I promised to marry him only if he was honest and didn’t use or manipulate me, but he’s been lying the whole time. I feel used.
