Page 22 of Jealous Alpha
I nipped her ear and passed my card to the cashier who was smiling sweetly at us. She probably thought we were a cute couple or something equally trite.
Little does she know the hell this one had just put me through to buy a gallon of milk. I paid and gathered up the bags in one hand and her hand in the other and lead her outside.
I looked around as she gave the driver directions to her place and the closer we got the less I liked what I saw.
“You live here?” Probably not the wisest thing to say to her as soon as we got out of the car and from her reaction I knew I’d hit a soft spot.
“We can’t all live in a mansion in the hills.”
“Who lives in a mansion in the hills?”
“Isn’t that where your kind usually lives? If this is too below your standards you can get back in your fancy car and head back. I’ll take it from here.”
“Shut up Gia. I’m not going to apologize for wanting better for you.”
“Did you ever stop to think that this is the best I can do?”
“I know how much I pay you so I know you can most definitely afford better than this.”
“Do you also know that Amber’s medication cost hundreds of dollars a month. And that until we moved here a couple months ago I hadn’t worked full time in almost two years?”
“Point taken, forget I said anything.” She could argue till her face turns blue I’m getting the both of them out of here first chance I get. There was litter on the sidewalk for fuck sake.
The building wasn’t the worst but it wasn’t anywhere near the best either. I followed her up the stairs because the elevator was broken and barely restrained myself from yelling at her.
“How do you plan on getting Amber up the stairs?”
“By carrying her of course.” I closed my mouth and followed her inside.
I stopped short in the little hallway by the door. “Is that him?” The wall was covered with pictures of a younger her and a man.
There were also a ton of photos of the little angel I’d met in the hospital, from birth to maybe a few months ago.
“Yes! She walked away and headed into the kitchen with the bags. I contemplated waiting for her to return before following her. She was standing at the sink drinking a glass of water.
She looked totally worn and tired from her hectic week. I wanted nothing more than to take her in my arms and tell her everything was going to be okay.
The specialist had done a good job of convincing us that everything was going to be okay.
Since he was known to be the best in the field if anyone knew how to cure her child of this illness I had no doubt that he could, so that was one less worry.
But right now I wasn’t thinking about that. I’d finally come face to face with her past and I couldn’t wait another second until I knew what I wanted to know.
I followed her out of the kitchen and down the hall to what I guess was a bedroom, stopping her outside the door.
“Tell me about him.”
“Who, Richard? What’s there to tell? We fell in love young, got married young, and then he died in an accident two weeks before the baby was born.”
She opened the door and walked in and I headed into the living room to wait. Hearing her say she’d been in love with him made me irrationally upset.
I didn’t want to hear that shit, but the proof was all over the place. Apart from the photos there were medals and awards with his name for his photography. The damn place was like a shrine.
I wanted to tear them apart and throw them out the window. I wanted to obliterate him and the more I studied his pretty boy looks in the pictures, or the ones where he had his hands on her, the more livid I became.
Stop being an ass Evan; the man is dead. Yes, but he’d had her. She’d smiled at him, shared a bed with him; had his child…
A dark haze clouded my eyes and I stumbled back away from the wall where I’d been studying his face.
