Page 84 of Hades

I should have known.

He’s the type of man to make sure the people he cares about are taken care of when he can’t do it himself.

“That was really sweet of him,” Lainey says.

“Sounds like something a guy would do for his old lady,” Kaitlyn says.

“It’s not like that,” I murmur, but even I don’t believe my words.

“Don’t mind my girl, she’s still in denial,” my mom says.

“Mom!” I groan, making the girls laugh.

“I’m not wrong,” she says as she pulls back. “Now tell me what happened.”

Turning toward my mom, everything spills out. HIPAA be damned, I tell her all about Melanie and how she came in both times as a patient and her connection to Dansworth. I list all of her injuries. How the first time she left the hospital before being fully evaluated and how when she came back, she died. Died because of a supposed error on my part. How my license is being reviewed and everything in between.

By the time I’m done, Mom has tears in her eyes.

“Why would you keep all of that from me?” she asks.

“Because I didn’t want to bother you.” I shrug.

“You are my daughter. You can never bother me,” she scolds.

“Sorry,” I murmur.

“So now you know why I said we should kill him ourselves,” Tara says.

Mom shakes her head. “While I admit it’s tempting, we need to let the club handle it, as hard as that may be. The boys have a plan. We just have to give them time.”

“My career is over,” I say quietly.

“No, sweetheart, it isn’t. Not unless you want it to be. It’s just on pause right now,” Mom says as she pushes my hair back away from my face.

How she can be so optimistic right now, I don’t know.

“It doesn’t feel like it,” I mutter.

Before anyone else can say anything, the church doors open, and brothers spill out. Pulling away from Mom, I wait for the only person I want to come out, needing him to hold me. To center me more than anything.

It takes several minutes, but when he does, I know the truth.

I am his old lady, even if neither of us has made it official yet.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Hades

Everything is out of sorts.

Evelyn has cleaned her house so much that I think it was dirtier when it was brand new. Not only that, but she has taken up a new hobby each day this week. None of them have stuck.

I hate watching her flounder. She is unsure of herself and the future.

“Please, Princess. I swear, I love almost everything about you, but if I have to hear you blow on that flute one more time, I might gouge my ears out with chopsticks,” I moan as she finally takes a break.

“Am I that bad?”