phin

to the acrid taste of

emptied my stomach, heaving until there

, trembling as I wiped my mo

zed this sensation. My mother had describe

my chest, heavier

towns over. I didn't take the main car; I took

e hands who didn't ask why I kept my sunglass

, she came back w

ming as if she were delivering a

white walls seeme

preg

Prince. The living treaty that would cement the al

ould have rushed home to tell Dante. He would have spun me around,

blood mixing with mine m

ouldn't raise a son to be a monster like his fat

n my car for an hour, my hands gripping the s

d me from the

sked. No hello. No ap

ged to say, my voice soun

te. I have business to attend to there, and I want you with me. It

ay from the city, surrounded by deep woods and dark

" I wh

topped at a pharmacy, but I didn't buy vitami

greeted me-until I heard voices drifting

g this," Valeria's voice whined, high and

ied, his tone dismissive. "Stop worry

the brat she's eventua

terrifyingly calm. "And even if there is, it's

the hallway, the a

ready dismissing our child-our flesh and

h, my protective instinc

o the tiny cluster

t let him

lled out a travel bag. I did

ifts from him. I packed the cash I had sewn into the

Lake Estate to play th

g there to