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“Congratulations!” they cried, their cheerful demeanor and cat sweaters at odds with the knot of dread that had settled in the pit of my stomach. I forced a polite smile and accepted a glass of the drink, but the bubbly liquid tasted wrong on my tongue.
We settled into our seats and the plane took off. I had thought every mile away from L.A. would be healing.
But so far the journey hadn’t been what I’d thought.
Walker tried to talk to me, his voice gentle as he reached out to touch my arm, but I pulled away, the ache in my chest too raw to bear. "Not now," I whispered, my voice barely audible above the hum of the plane's engines. "I can't...not yet."
His brow furrowed with concern, but he nodded, his expression reflecting the turmoil that mirrored my own. We retreated to our seats, the silence between us heavy with unspoken words and unanswered questions.
I buried myself in my thoughts, and the hours stretched on, each minute somehow feeling like an eternity.
How was he going to explain this?
CHAPTER 34
WALKER
“You need to eat,” I coaxed her as we walked into the door of the house. She hadn’t eaten anything this morning before the hearing because she’d been too nervous. And on the plane, I hadn’t even been able to get her to eat Mabel’s cookies.
She and the baby needed nutrition, damnit.
“I can make you a smoothie…”
“I’m not hungry,” she muttered, heading towards the bedroom.
I followed after her…of course. Where she went I was always going to go.
Olivia walked into the closet and stopped in front of her side, staring at her clothes.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “Can we talk now?”
“I think we should take a minute. Maybe I should get my own place for a little bit,” she said in a dead voice. “I’ll probably need a new realtor since the one I’ve been using clearly sucks.” She glared at me. “Or was that part of your plan too?”
Fair point about the realtor…but what had she just said? There was a buzzing in my ears and I was thinking I’d finally lost my mind because there was no way she was saying she neededsome space. The farthest space she could have was the other side of the bed. “Space” was not happening.
“There’s no plan,” I said patiently. “If you would just listen to me. There’s a very reasonable explanation for what she said.”
Her golden eyes had lost their shine, and her expression was…defeated.
She pulled one of her favorite shirts off a hanger and I shook my head.
There was a lot that Olivia could want to leave me over…the foremost beingour daughterin her stomach right now…but my deal with Jolette and Marco to smooth the way for our relationship was not one of them.
Sighing, I shook my head as I pulled the handcuffs out of my pocket.
I reached over and fastened them around her delicate wrist, the metallic click echoing loudly in the room.
Olivia glanced down at her arm, staring at the cuffs for a second before she gaped at me in disbelief.
"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded.
I stared back unflinchingly, my jaw clenched tight as I secured the other side of the cuffs to my wrist. "Making sure you don't try to run from me before we talk about what that bitch said," I replied, my voice low and intense.
She huffed. “Seriously, Walker, undo theserightnow.” She didn’t seem scared or alarmed yet…that was good. This was a perfect practice run for if she ever figured out the birth control…and everything else I’d done.
"We need to talk," I insisted, my voice tinged with urgency.
“You unhook me right now or…or…” her voice faded away as she failed to come up with something she would do to me.
