Adler | The Monarch & The Heirs BOOK 2.

Karma | A FORTY SIX

A/N: Dedicated to
ljffuflgxd and @inmelaninwetrust

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Stevie couldn’t hide her stun when looking up to meet those crystal eyes, appearing slightly jaded. She’d been rendered to just dumbly staring until Hess said, “Hey.”

“What, what are you doing here?” It came out involuntarily sharp, almost sounding angry that Hess flinched as a response.

“I’d been meaning to return this.”

Stevie’s gaze travelled to the wrapped box. He pried the lid partially to reveal a familiar, thick tuff of grey fur. It was the tippet to match her black strapless she wore to the party. She'd completely forgotten its absence and worrying on how to repay losing a three grand worth coat of fluff was the last thing on her mind. She mumbled a “thank you”, reaching out to collect it and her fingers stiffly moving as to avoid so much as brushing his own. She truly hadn’t meant to, even when fully accepting he was innocent now, it was like her body had grown a knee-jerk reaction to his presence after that night.

Hess obviously noticed but of course, acted oblivious to it and the weird pauses they were both skirting around. It was all so unsettling, Stevie wasn’t sure where to look and where not to that would drive home the wrong impressions. As her body was failing her, she’d have to rely on words. Which, as she quickly discovered, came with its own difficulty. She had to fight through what felt like a frog in her throat to speak evenly, “I actually have something I need to tell you so you should come in.”

She briefly peeked up at Hess’ face to find him blatantly shocked, blinking repeatedly. “I-I um, are you sure?” Apprehension was evident in his voice, it didn’t suit the Casanova whatsoever. “I get it if you… if you…”

He couldn’t seem to finish off the sentence, expression pained but she understood. He was more than willing to stay, he just didn’t want it feeling wrong. He was going to accept if she pushed him out of her life this time and Stevie wouldn’t deny the idea had crossed her mind—it certainly would’ve been easier. Nonetheless…

“You can come in, Hess,” she urged. “I want you to.”

Though still ambivalent, he brought his feet onto the carpeted flooring and she promptly shut the door. She spied the lounge chair but sitting there would mean sharing it with Hess and moving to the other room to retrieve the throne chair by her dresser would seem like she truly hadn’t wanted him around but that left for Hess to sit on her bed… yeah, that wasn’t happening. She allowed Hess to claim the lounge chair while she occupied a spot atop her bedsheets. That decision still had Hess drifting his eyes to the floor between his shoes. “So… what did you wanna say?”

Stevie pursed her lips. “Frankly, there’s a lot and I’m not sure where to start.” She thought for a moment. “The party—“ She swallowed hoarsely. “What happened had been out of your control, contrary to what I thought and I’m sorry about that, I should’ve been more careful.”

“Careful?”

“Of how I handled the situation, I was too brash.”

She could make out his jaw ticking from the angle exposed to her, followed by a shallow exhale. “You don’t apologise for something like that, Stevie.” His voice sounded so small and distant, as if they weren’t in the same room. “You were being blackmailed and I was just being a scumbag who couldn’t accept not getting my way, like you said.”

Stevie grimaced at the quoting. He’d been carrying around all those insults she hurled at him since that night, hadn’t he? “But I’d only said that under a misconception, I was wrong. You weren’t going to hurt me.”