“Nope.” I shake my head.
She jumps up and down before she slams her lips to mine. My hands go to her wet hair.
I never wanted to go to New York. My wife’s reluctance just solidified it for me. I can be powerful anywhere I go. The Lords want me to be a judge, so that’s what I’ll be, but they never said where I had to live. Everyone just expected me to go back home, but things have changed. This woman has become my home. She’s having my sons. And even more of my kids after that. I want a house full of them. I’m going to keep her knocked up. She deserves for me to give her the life that she wants. And that is here, in this cabin, with me and our growing family.
I can’t guarantee that I’ll grow old with her, but I will spend every second of every day that I’m alive proving to her that she comes first no matter what.
BLAKELY
I ENTER THE house I grew up in, in Texas. Shutting the door behind me, I walk down the hallway to my father’s study. Turning the doorhandle, I pause and knock on it instead.
“Come in.” The voice calls out.
Taking in a deep breath, I enter. LeAnne sits behind his desk, looking like the queen sitting on her throne, dressed in a black off the shoulder dress with her fake tits popping out the top. Her dark hair up in a tight twist.
I hate how much I look like her. It’s a reminder of how stupid I was all those years that I believed the lies I was told about my mother.
“Does Ryat know you’re here?” Is her first question.
“Of course.” Lie. “I don’t keep secrets from my husband.” There’s no way in hell he’d let me come and see her without him. He hates her! Doesn’t trust her. I feel the same way, but a part of me couldn’t turn down her request to see her today. Ryat got called away for an assignment late last night and I feel like that wasn’t a coincidence. Something tells me that this woman has a lot of pull with the Lords. I’m just praying that he’s too busy to check the tracker he placed in me after I ran. A part of me wants to rip it out. The other part reminds me that it saved my life and being a Lady means I’m never truly safe.
She smirks, gesturing to the chair across from the desk. “You’ll learn that even in a marriage, sometimes the only person you can trust is yourself.”
“Coming from the woman who left her family.” I bite. I feel bad for my father too, I wasn’t the only one she left behind. But she’s got him fooled. Considering he still seems to love her.
She opens up a drawer in the desk and hands me a piece of paper. “What is it?” I ask, keeping my hands in my lap.
“Have a look.”
Reaching out, I take it and read over the writing. It’s a marriage license with her and my father’s name on it. “I don’t understand.”
“Me and your father got married his senior year at Barrington.”
I frown. “What’s this have to do with me?” Tossing it onto the desk, I sit back in the chair. “Just further proves my point that you left not only your daughter but also your husband.”
“Bigamy is illegal in every state.” She answers.
My eyes drop to her ring finger and see a massive diamond on it. “So, you got a divorce and married someone else?” I nod. “Not sure why that was so important.” I remember Tyson and Matt discussing once a Lord dies, his Lady is given to a new Lord. I wonder if she requested my father since Ryat killed her husband last year, now that Valerie is dead also.
“I’ve only ever been married to one man, Blakely.” She opens another drawer and pulls out a picture, placing it on the desk in front of me.
Picking it up, I see it’s a younger version of her, but it looks like me. The guy she’s standing next to is my father. “I … no.” I shove it away. “You were married to the man Ryat killed.” I can’t remember his name. not sure anyone ever even told me that information.
She tilts her head to the side. “Your father’s marriage to Valerie was the lie. It was never legal because we were already married.”
I run a hand through my hair. “Why does this fucking matter?”
“Because I want you to know the truth.”
I snort. “Nothing is true. All I’m told are lies.”
“You think I left you behind because of your father. I left you because the Lords called me. And you never, ever tell them no.”
“Why would they tell you to leave him?” I scoff. I know the Lords have to obey their oath, but I’ve never been told that a Lady has to do with that.