AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The past two days I’ve survived on coffee. I couldn’t bring myself to eat. Every time my phone beeped, or someone knocked at the door, I thought it was Dax. Or, at least, news about Dax. A message from him. Confirmation that he was allowed visitors and had asked for me.
Something.
Anything.
But all I got was nothing. Nothing followed by more nothing.
Sophie came over when Jasmin and Logan were here. She said she was certain the charges against Dax would be dropped. But she wanted to understand more about the entire situation first.
She confirmed the DNA results. Julian Young is Dax’s biological father. Something I already knew, yet still made me want to throw up when I heard her say it. And she also told us that the guy at the dockyard, James, was an undercover cop. He’d been working as part of a team investigating serious and organized crime—specifically Julian Young and his business—for the past eighteen months. Apparently, James knew who Dax really was the entire time. Which makes no sense to me at all. How could an undercover cop allow a civilian with a vigilante revenge motive to get so close to a case like that and do nothing about it for months? But Sophie brushed off my concerns with confidence. Jasmin and Logan seemed happy with her explanation, or lack of one.
Maybe I’m overthinking it. My head’s been all over the place.
I pick up Logan’s keys, turning them over in my hands for something to do as he continues crashing about in the kitchen. I swear he can’t do anything quietly. I’d do anything to hear one of his funny dating app stories right now. Take me back to a time when things seemed normal. When I knew how it felt to laugh.
Before I found out my boyfriend’s grandparents anonymously paid off his dad to leave their daughter alone. They may have seen what Julian was capable of back then. But Jessica didn’t. Protecting their daughter cost them their relationship with her.
And their relationship with Dax and then Jasmin.
All that time they could have spent together… lost.
Lost because of secrets.
Lost because of lies.
Jasmin’s since learned from talking to Alistair that Julian met Al’s mom shortly after leaving Jessica. They married and had Alistair within a year. And Alistair’s mom came from a wealthy family. Julian used money from them to start his business. The business that’s now been seized as part of the criminal investigation against him. Thankfully, Alistair was only ever involved in the legitimate side of things, so the police have cleared him from any involvement. Alistair said Julian always had his eye on the Silver Estate. It’s another reason he and Jasmin kept their relationship a secret. Only, Julian knew somehow. He admitted as much in the dockyard. He probably thought it was a brilliant twist of fate in his favor that they fell for one another. He always planned to get the business somehow. Whether that was by getting Dax out of the picture with a jail stabbing, or some new plan for Jasmin, the thought of which makes my skin crawl and blood run cold.
That bastard will stop at nothing for what he wants. I saw it in his eyes that night. Ifeltit in his hands when they were on me, holding my face down against the hood of the car.
I wrap my arms around myself, rubbing my hands up and down my upper arms where goosebumps have formed. He didn’t do anything to me. Dax made sure of it. He could have been shot for trying to save me. He could have died in front of my eyes.
And now he can’t even bring himself to see me. I wish I knew what was going on in that confusing head of his.
Dax hot-and-cold Silver.
“Here you go.” Logan walks in and places the steaming mug in front of me on the table and scoops up his keys that I’ve placed back down, and his phone.
“You leaving?”
“I can come straight back. I just need to get some things for Dax.” He looks at me with guilt-ridden eyes.
“Oh.”
Dax could have asked me. It’s exactly what I could have done for him. I would have loved it. Picking up some things for him for when he comes home, stocking the fridge with things he likes, getting more fish food for his office.
I would have been excited to do it, knowing that I was about to get him back again.
“It’s fine.” I force a smile onto my face and stand to walk Logan to the door. “There’s no rush. Take as long as you need.”
“I’ll be an hour, max.” Logan steps through the front door.
He looks at me with uncertainty.
“Really. I’ll be fine.”
He takes in a deep breath, his brow furrowing, before he reaches out and squeezes my upper arm. “Call me if you need anything.”
“I will.”
