Meadow’s POV: I stopped in my tracks.Tyler.Tyler was right behind me, and he thought I was Juniper. I suppose he was aware that she was out there dressing like me. My heart thumped hard against my ribcage, the hairs on the back of my neck rising and causing my skin to itch.I didn’t turn at first. It made more sense that he thought I was Juniper even though she wasn’t supposed to be here. There was absolutely no reason for Tyler to think that I would come here when he didn’t know I was Alaric’s wife.“Hey,” he drawled, amusement lacing his tone. “What are you doing here? Couldn’t wait for me to get home, huh?”I wasn’t sure why, but I couldn’t move. And then, I felt Tyler’s hand on mine and a gasp tore from my throat as I snatched my arm back, spinning around to face him.The confused expression on his face slowly turned into one of surprise.And then, anger.“Are you fucking kidding me?” he seethed, staring me down with his lips curled downward in disgust. “What the hell are you
Meadow’s POV: I’d been here a few times before, when I was still in a relationship with Tyler and he used to make me come meet him here or wait for him.It felt different now, though.Maybe because I was going as the CEO’s wife, and not an employee’s little girlfriend or fiance.I didn’t text Alaric to let him know I was on my way, and as I stepped out of the car, I wished I had. But I was already here. And I needed to speak to my husband.I turned to face Trip, and then paused. He hadn’t gotten out of the car.“What?” I breathed. “You’re not coming in with me?”Trip smirked. “Not my territory. The moment you step through those doors, you’re the boss’s problem, not mine.”I shot him a glare, rolling my eyes so far back into my head. “Great. The one moment I need you to be clingy and that’s when you decide to pull back,” I muttered, turning to stare up at the building.It looked as tall and magnificent as it was the first time I came here.A shiver ran down my spine. I was anxious, n
Meadow’s POV: A full minute passed, my throat getting tighter and tighter with every second that went by.Juniper had gone to see our father in prison, pretending to be me. And of course, my father wouldn’t have been able to tell us apart because of how long it had been, so she could have easily fooled him.But it didn’t make any sense at all.“What are you…” My jaw clenched. “What did you do, Juniper?”“Nothing too bad, I promise. I just… made him hate you more than he already did.” She giggled, taking another sip of her drink.I slammed my fists on the table as a red hot feeling surged from the bottom of my stomach to my chest. I could feel different eyes on us but I didn’t take my eyes off my sister.She was the reason my father reached out to me.She had to be. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch, sis. I’ll tell you.” Juniper smirked, her own eyes sparkling with amusement. “God, it’s so easy to pretend to be you. To be so soft and squishy and soft-spoken. You think your hot husba
Meadow’s POV: Once, while we were still teenagers, Juniper had tried to get me in trouble. I was sick and had to miss school, but I found out that Juniper had gone to school dressed at me and caused a hell of a ruckus at school that day.Made out with a boy who had a crush on me and made sure they were caught, and after she was sent to the principal’s office, she instead went to the bathroom to smoke.Long story short, if Nova hadn’t been there at school that day, I would’ve gotten suspended for things that I didn’t do. But thankfully, she was. And she called Juniper out and claimed my innocence. My sister ended up being the one suspended.Yeah… that was one of the major reasons Juniper hated Nova so much—though not as much as she hated me. Nova had always been there for me, defending me against my sister, being there for me during hard fucking times and somehow still managing to keep her own mental health in tact. I loved Nova so much, and it’s why I refused to pick up the phone wh
Alaric’s POV: “You told me the code the night I carried your drunk ass to your apartment, remember?”That was a year ago. He had called that night begging for forgiveness, and was trying to punish himself. I found him at the bar and brought him to his house instead of taking him to our mother’s.“And out of everything that just happened here, that’s the one question you're worried about?” I breathed, arching a brow.Nolan’s nostrils flared and he slammed me against the wall again. I only felt a slight pressure as my head hit the wall, but not the pain.“Why did you do that?” he seethed.He wasn’t hitting me.Why wasn’t he hitting me? I wanted him to hit me.“Do what? Call you out for being unfair to my wife?”His jaw clenched. “You came all this way to give me trouble about being unfair to your wife? I don’t fucking buy it. You’ve never been here, and if you really wanted to fucking scold me for the things I said, you’d have already hit me a long time ago. And you certainly wouldn’t
Alaric’s POV:I didn’t go straight to work that morning.I had a goal, and I was going to make sure that I saw it through. I didn’t go to meet my brother yesterday because I was too busy thinking about my wife and wondering what her next move was going to be.Fuck, she was infuriating me. Nearly causing me to go insane from her stubbornness. And not to think of the fact that she had begun to blame herself for my father’s death when she knew damn well that it wasn’t her fault.Meadow was a victim, and she kept treating herself like she was the offender.If she hadn’t agreed to go with Trip, I wouldn’t have let her stubborn ass leave the house. Hell, I would’ve gone with her to meet her sister—which was something she would not have liked.I didn’t know else I was supposed to get it instilled in her brain.She wasn’t just avoiding me because she was pissed that I kept this entire thing from her. She was avoiding me because she didn’t know how to face me, and by punishing me, she was also