Chapter 2Bound To The Reckless Heir

After a chaotic hour of tension, we ended up back in the same bed.

Nate was clearly seething. He lay on the far edge of the mattress, his back to me, a wall of cold muscle and silence. Eventually, his breathing leveled out into the slow rhythm of sleep, and the iron band of tension around my chest finally loosened.

I lay there in the dark, my mind racing through the blur of the last few months.

My mother and Evelyn had been best friends when they were young. They both married for love, but that’s where the similarities ended. Evelyn married Arthur Garrison and found a life of security and enduring affection. My mother... my mother’s "love story" shattered the year I turned five, the night the first bruise appeared.

The abuse had been a slow, agonizing crawl. My mother endured it for years, even after she suffered two broken ribs. She stayed until the night my father turned his rage on me. I had tried to protect her, clinging to his leg to keep him from hitting her again, and he had backhanded me across the room.

In that moment, the fragility in my mother’s eyes vanished. She pushed him back with a strength she didn't know she had and scooped me up. We ran. We called the police. My father, Richard, was sentenced to eighteen years for domestic battery and aggravated assault. For a decade, we were happy, just the two of us.

Until the cancer came.

When the diagnosis hit, Evelyn stepped back into our lives. She moved my mother into the best facility in the city and covered every cent of the astronomical bills. I was drowning in debt and grief, and Evelyn became my life raft.

A week ago, Evelyn had taken my hand, her eyes full of a strange, determined kind of love. "Riley, I’ve always adored you. I want you to be part of this family. Properly."

I had been stunned, but she just patted my arm. "Don't worry. My son isn't a monster. He’s just... lost. He needs someone grounded. Someone like you to pull him back to earth."

How could I say no? How could I refuse the woman who was literally keeping my mother alive?

The room was silent now, save for the hum of the AC. I tried to shift my weight, my body aching from the stress. Nate must have felt the movement because he suddenly yanked the duvet toward him.

The sudden rush of cold air hit my skin, making me shiver. The AC was cranked down to sixty degrees. I knew I’d be sick by morning if I didn't cover up, so I reached out, gingerly trying to pull a corner of the blanket back.

In a heartbeat, Nate spun around. He was over me in an instant, his arms bracing him on either side of my head, his eyes burning with accusation. "What? Can't wait for your 'wifely duties' to start?"

The shock paralyzed me. "I... I..."

Nate’s lip curled. "You what?"

"I wasn't... I just wanted the blanket."