Fated Connection (Book 1)

Chapter 20

NOVA

I wasn't completely sure about leaving Nevada alone with Alana. I knew the woman was her mother, technically anyway, but I didn't trust her. However, if I had to choose I trusted her more than I trust Dominic but maybe that was just because he was actually related to me and Alana wasn't. Gods, it made my head hurt trying to figure it out. Everything was such a mess.

I stood at the top of the stairs for a moment, contemplating what I was going to do next. My energy was too amped up to just sit in my room, but then I didn't want to go downstairs because that's where Dominic was. I needed something productive to do, something that could take my mind off things for a bit.

A smile played on my lips as and idea came to me. Checking the time on my phone to make sure my timing was right, I jogged down the stairs to the kitchen. On my way passed the living room doorway, I overheard August speaking to Dominic.

"No, they don't hate you," he told Dominic.

Unbelievable, I thought while rolling my eyes.

"Yes, I do!" I tossed out without even sparing them a glance.

And it was true. I did hate him. I hated him for sending my mother away while pregnant and then leaving her to run for her life all by herself while also caring for an unborn child. I hated him for never coming to find me after I was born, making me grow up with a bitter mother and no father. No male figure to look up to and having to figure it all out on my own. I hated him for some many things and it pissed me off, twisting my mind into knots that I didn't know how to untangle.

When I entered the kitchen, lost in my thoughts I nearly walked into Hatter as he was making himself a sandwich. I mumbled an apology as I absentmindedly went to the fridge to look for something to make for dinner. 

I loved to cook. It was relaxing and required a certain amount of concentration to get everything just right. Not to mention, the reward was a delicious finished product and one could never go wrong with food. Not in my opinion anyway since I loved food.

In that moment though, I wasn't seeing the inside of the fridge but instead replaying memories of when I had wished for Dominc. When I was just a little boy and my mother had told me of the Lost Prince she had retold it as if it were a bedtime story. When I got a little older, she had finally told me the truth. I hated Dominic for how many nights I had heard that story after that and cried myself to sleep, wishing for a father that would never come.

"Nova, why don't you let me do that before you hurt yourself?" A voice cut into my silent chaos.

"Huh?" I responded, confused. 

I blinked a few times and came back to the present to find that I had gotten out ingredients at some point. Before me sat the cutting board with a head of lettuce and a large knife held tightly in my right hand. Other vegetables rested off to the side alongside a bowl. Looking around, I saw a package of spaghetti noodles, tomatoes, an onion, and the other ingredients needed for making spaghetti. 

I stood stunned and unmoving as I tried to process what I was looking at. I didn't remember moving away from the fridge or getting any food from it or the cabinets. My mind so occupied with the fact that Dominic, my absentee father, had suddenly shown up out of nowhere and without warning that I hadn't realized I had done anything. 

"Nova?" Hatter pressed, concern lacing his voice. 

I drug my eyes away from the spaghetti and looked at him, his honey colored eyes etched with worry as he searched my face. I didn't know what to say to him or what he was expecting, my mind such a jumbled mess that I couldn't focus on anything.