All Chapters of Daddies Taste Better : Chapter 421 - Chapter 430

If I’d tanked that exam, the rest of my day would’ve been completely ruined.Luckily, it went surprisingly well. Pretty much everything I’d crammed into my head over the past week actually showed up on the test. My hand was dead from writing non-stop, but I had all the answers down. When I finally set the pen down and handed the paper in, the relief hit so hard it almost made me dizzy.I stepped out of the building into the early afternoon light, bag lighter without the stack of notes I’d been carrying for days, and nearly walked straight into Sarah.She caught my elbow with a quick laugh, already talking before I’d fully steadied myself.“Oh my God — you’re done too?” Her whole face was bright with it, the specific kind of excitement that only came from surviving a last exam. “I thought I was going to throw up in the middle of the second section. Did yours go okay? Please tell me yours went okay so I don’t feel crazy for being this happy.”“It went well,” I said. “Better than I exp

I looked at her, then at the car behind James, then back at the building I had just walked out of, as if any of those things might give me a cleaner way out of this mess. “My… my things,” I let out immediately the idea came to mind and turn to parent. “My things are still there. I need to go back and get them.” Mom’s expression shifted immediately, the congratulations warmth thinning into something less patient. “Then we’ll follow you. Or James can take us. It doesn’t have to be complicated, Saraphina. We’ll help you pack whatever you need and then we can go to dinner.” “That’s not—” I stopped myself before the rest of it came out too defensive again. “Its not that simple. I can’t just disappear from the house like I was never staying there and I also need to get the things I need.” James cleared his throat once, quietly enough that it still cut through the pause. “That won’t be necessary,” he said. “I’ll bring Miss Saraphina’s things to her tomorrow.” I turned toward him befor

“All those times you hasitated every time I asked about the house, was it because you were living with him? I can’t believe I sat on the phone with you and told myself it was exams, or homesickness, or you being stubborn about independence, and the whole time that man was in the same building filling your head with God knows what.”“He wasn’t filling my head with anything!”“Don’t.” She jerked against Dad’s hold hard enough that the balloons on the nearest chair bumped together. “Don’t stand there and protect him. You have no idea what he is or a single bit of what he does. He’s a vicious, selfish son of a bitch! He has always been!”“Mom, stop.”She didn’t. The suite was too small for the way her voice kept rising, for the way every sentence about Noah came out like she was scraping something old out of her chest.“He ruins things, Saraphina,” she went on. “That’s what he does.”“I said stop.”“Why?” she snapped. “Because he was nice to you? Huh? Did he act like he gave a shit? How

I wiped my tears with the back of my hand as I stepped out the suite, letting the door click shut behind me, I leaned against the wall, tipping my head back until it touched the paint.Then my phone buzzed in my pocket.I almost ignored it but not after I saw Riley’s name on the screen. I immediately picked it up.“Hey.”It came out rough so I cleared my throat and tried again, turning away from the suite door as if that would keep any of this from traveling back through the wood.“Hey. Sorry. I’m here.”There was a pause on the other end.“Where are you?” she said finally. “James came back without you and then he and Noah did that whole quiet-man conversation in the garden and nobody would tell me anything. I thought you were coming home after the exam.”Home. I closed my eyes.“I’m with my parents,” I informed her. “They showed up after the exam. Surprise.”Riley went quiet for a second. “That bad?”I let out a breath that was almost a laugh and sounded nothing like one. “Worse.”D

NOAH⋆⭒˚.⋆⋆⭒˚.⋆I was on the balcony when James found me.The night air was cold as I leaned against the railing, cigarette burning between my fingers, smoke curling up and disappearing into the dark like everything else I’d ever tried to hold onto.When I heard the door slide open behind me, I didn’t bother to turn around. Not when I already knew who it was.James stepped out, quiet as always and didn’t say anything at first. Just stood there, letting the silence sit between us before he broke it. “Starving yourself won’t bring her back, you know.”I took a slow drag, letting the ash drop without bothering to look up“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”What a pathetic, embarrassing lie. I cringed at myself the second it left my mouth.I knew Exactly what he was talking about.James released a slow stream of air into the quiet room. “It’s for the best.”That line finally broke my glare from the dark. My head snapped toward him, the split in my eyebrow stinging as my face twiste