Page 65 of Kade's Downfall

Before Diesel can speak, Fern comes sprinting in like she’s running from a fire.“Diesel?” she gasps, shoving a letter into his chest. Then she turns on me, eyes wet, face crumpling. “She—she left.”

“You got one too?” I ask, cheerfully waving my bottle. “She’s good, right? Should’ve been a writer.”

“This is your fault,” she spits.

“I know.”

“All you had to do wasbe here! It happened toher, not you, and you made her feel dirty and alone and ashamed.” She’s crying, glaring and shaking. I stare at the floor because I can’t argue with any of it. I’ve already bled myself dry with guilt. “You have to find her, Kade. You have to bring her home.”

I shake my head. “She doesn’t want me to.”

“I don’t care!” Fern screams. “She’s just saying that. She wants you to fight for her, she wants you to love her—”

“It’s better this way.”

Fern drops to her knees in front of me, grabbing my hand, forcing me to meet her eyes.“Kade. She loves you. She’s having your baby. And she just needs to know you still love her.”

The room tilts. I stare at her, the words echoing in my skull. “She’s got a place,” I mutter. “This wasn’t sudden. She planned it. She wants out. She wants… normal.”

“She wantsyou,” Fern snaps. “She always wanted you.”

I shake my head, feeling the crack in my chest split a little wider. “The trouble is, Fern, I hate myself.” My voice breaks, low and ugly. “I blame myself for everything. And I can’t look at her without feeling like my insides are being ripped apart. And now, I don’t have to look at her at all, because she’s gone.”

The hatred that flashes across Fern’s face mirrors what I see every time I look in the mirror. “I refuse to let you make this about you,” she hisses, standing. “You’re not the victim here,sheis. Sort. Your. Shit. Out.”

Before I can reply, Maggie waddles over with her apron still on, flour dusting her hands. I roll my eyes. “News travels.”

“So she’s gone?” she asks quietly.

Fern nods.

“I thought she might,” Maggie sighs. “She handed me all your vitamins yesterday morning. Made me swear I’d crush them into your food because she knew you’d never take them on your own.”

I frown. “I don’t take vitamins.”

“That’s the lengths she went to for you,” Maggie snaps. “She’d stand in the kitchen crushing pills like some mad scientist just to keep you healthy.”

“Stop trying to guilt trip me.”

“I’m not,” she shoots back. “I’m stating facts. You’re a bloody idiot for letting her walk out that door. Though maybe sheshouldstay away. You’re poison when you’re like this.”

“Thanks,” I say flatly. “Always count on you to tell the truth.”

“You don’t even want to know the truths I’m thinking in my head, lad.” She jabs a finger toward the bar. “Empty the alcohol. Pres has given up drinking. Any of you idiots give him so much as a sip and I’ll starve you for a week.”

“Hey!” I shout, stumbling to my feet. “I make the orders around here!”

“You want to take me on?” she snaps. “Go on then. Because I can make your life a misery. Never bite the hand that feeds you.”

Diesel snatches the whisky bottle from my grip. “She’s right. As your VP, I’m intervening.”

I glare murder at him. “You what?”

“Until you get help,” he says firmly, “you’re not fit to give orders. We’ll vote on it, but I know which way the brothers will go.”

The floor drops out beneath me.

And for the first time, I realise just how far I’ve fallen.

To be continued…