“It’s not that simple,” Michael paused, staring at his daughter. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days. “From what I’ve gathered Richard destroyed the evidence my wife,” He glanced to the woman bitterly. It was a wonder they were still together. “Sold to him,”
“So that’s it?”
“No, I’m sure there’s something somewhere—Christopher isn’t half as smart as he thinks he is,” He glanced at the teenager who looked about as confused as he would have thought. “Richard and Vincent were friends all throughout school, there’s a point where it all went digital and that would have had to be when they both seemed old enough to do it themselves,” she looked even more confused. “He can’t be framing children, Blue, why would a five-year-old commit fraud?”
“If the
“And you expect me to just trust you because...?” obscured by the hair that fell across Blue’s eyes with the tilt of her head, Marian looked quite young for a moment. If only a moment.“What do I have to gain from lying, Blue? My husband despises me, I’m a prisoner in my own home-”“Fine!” The moment Blue snapped, she felt rather guilty rather instantly. Slouched in her seat as the woman sent her a pointed stare. Curled her toes in her shoes. Out of shame? She wasn’t sure. “You can’t blame me for being cautious…”“No, I can’t.” Fiddling with her napkin, Marian cast her eyes to the table—feeling, too, something like shame. “But what other options do you have right now? Other than the obvious,”“Marrying Richard?”“Exactly.”&nbs
Vincent hadn’t said a word to her in a while. They had driven in silence. She had sat at the kitchen counter. Watched as he made her a green tea, eyes refusing her own. Admittedly, she felt rather nervous. Was her disappointed in her? A possibility she had only just considered. But he hadn’t even given her the time to explain. She knew that he was a grown man. Wondered if he wouldn’t care for the antics that had cleared his name simply because she’d caused a bit of a fuss with it all. And grown men didn’t like fusses. No, they’d much rather the quiet. And Blue, as it turned out, was certainly not quiet.Blue was guilty of assaulting a police officer, as it turned out. Something Vincent had paid the officer generously to forget. No, he was far more concerned with the fact she’d been printed in his morning newspaper proclaiming her guilt to protect her beloved fiancé—and the fact when he&rsqu
“For god’s sake, I’m pregnant with your child. Would you just listen to me?” Not caring much at all for the fact he’d swatted her away like a fly, she took the man by the face as she had before. Pressed herself up against him. Hoped he wouldn’t shove her away again and seethe something about how she’d betrayed him. “I love you; I wouldn’t do anything if I thought it would hurt you.”“You know Richard. Do you really think he’s innocent?”“No, of course I don’t think he’s innocent—I think that he slapped around his girlfriend, and he needs some help, but I also think that the only way to stop all of this isn’t by sending Richard to prison because nothing will stop them from blocking people’s payments after someone else has taken the blame.” He softened. Thought did struggle from his wife sl
She smiled a small smile. Rubbed her dampened palms across her jeans. “Fuck me, then.” She felt strange demanding it. A night in prison had her well-acquainted with her desire, it would seem. So much so that she was now unafraid of being rather crass about it. Fearless of whether she seemed juvenile or improper.“Not yet,” He met her with a gentle, brief kiss. Reached for her jeans again. Eased her onto the countertop. “I’ve been planning this for a while, you see,” Her heart jumped as he tugged her trousers to her ankles far too easily for her liking.“You have?”“I have.” He stood over her. Slid a hand inside of her underwear. Pressed his mouth against hers. Why did she feel like a patient on an operating table? She thought silently. Why did she like it?“What are you going to do?”She stared
Leg bouncing impatiently, eyes nailed straight to the same doorway, Blue hardly flinched as she spilled coffee all over her hand. It didn’t burn her. Rather, she pretended it didn’t burn her. Or, more accurately, she didn’t have the RAM to care. She wiped the soiled hand on her black jeans. Set her half-sipped coffee beneath her chair. Adjusted her grip on the spare. And her knee just kept on bouncing. Suddenly, the familiar thin man burst through the door. She smiled at his coffee-less hand. Had he come to expect her? She jumped up. “Detective!” Positively beaming to herself for absolutely no reason. Hoping he couldn’t see the blood pooling beneath her thumb nail where she had bitten it a bit too short. “Ms Pierce,” He forced a stiff smile as she thrust the coffee towards him. The lid had crusted over with spilt foam. But the paper body was still hot. “I appreciate the gesture, but servicemen drink free at the café next door—yo
“Are you going to say anything?” Finally, Blue looked up. It was a reasonable enough question. She had been sat by her ex-fiancé’s side for a good few minutes at that point. Staring at the children thrashing about the playground like ants with oversize loads. How she wanted to run up to them with a bottle of hand sanitizer. Who knows what diseases bred in those sheltered, hot slides?“How’s therapy?” She stared into her ex’s bright eyes. Looked for something material to validate her hopefulness.“I’m still going, if that’s what you’re really asking.” She looked away, satisfied. It had been. Looked back up at him.“I saw your mother yesterday,”“You did?” Richard looked awfully hopeful. She felt badly for the man.“She was at the station,” That hope resigned
Laid out on the couch, a hand splayed across her stomach, Blue was sure all the roundness couldn’t completely be the baby. It seemed sealed behind a thick layer of fat. Squishy in her palm. Folded in a roll beneath her ribs. She ought to fix her posture. She looked like an eccentric armchair. Still, the tie of an empire waistline dress tight around her sides, she imagined the baby kick. Screwed shut her eyes. Fixed herself with a grimace of great concentration. Wondered if she felt the infant’s heartbeat of the pulse in her own fingers. And felt rather foolish for deciding she was emotionally ready for a child. At eighteen. How laughable. She stood. “Blue?” Her summons was muffled. Vincent would have been downstairs. Locked away in his study. Sat in the half-darkness. Surely, she’d imagined it. That shut door meant just that. She couldn’t go in. She had never tried to. She missed their apartment, knowing all too well only because he couldn’t escape her there.
Stiffly, she followed suit. Relaxed as he tugged her into his chest. Neck craning sideways as he leant over her, breathing into her skin. She wished silently he’d nibble at her skin. Slide a hand beneath her skirt. Rub his erection up over the back of her. But all he seemed to want to do was stare. “What?” She asked quietly. “You’re beautiful.” He spoke just as quietly, untying the woman’s dress without a word. So, she fixed him with a stare over her shoulder, sighing as his mouth pressed to hers. He’d opened the front of his wife’s wrap dress, fingertips creeping down her torso, stomach stiff against his forearm and his hand swiftly rooted in her panties. And as she sucked in a deep breath, the bulge of his child pressing into his arm swelled somehow further, he never wanted to fuck the mother of his child any more—or any less. “There are so many things I want to do to you right now,” He murmured in her ear, fingertips strummin