What Lurks Beneath the Surface ✔️

chapter twenty-one

Clenching my already wounded fist, I strut toward the happy family. The closer I get, the worse my vision becomes—all I see is red.

"Vange, get back here!" I hear Kira whisper-shout, but I ignore her, already halfway to their table.

Keep it together, Vange. Don't lose your shit.

"So," I say, causing all of them to jump in their seats, "what's going on?"

Benson's copper face turns ghostly white. Across from him, Alyx looks like she's about the wet herself. Poor Clem wears a baffled expression. She might be the only one more confused than I am.

"Evangeline, hi," Benson mutters, his discomfort palpable.

I roll my eyes. "Benson, hi. Care to tell me what the hell this is?"

"Honey, it's not what you think," Alyx says, running her fingers through her crimson hair.

"So you're not eating dinner together like the perfect little family?" I accuse them.

"Evangeline, stop it!" Benson scolds me before he rises to his feet, wraps his fingers around my bicep, and drags me out of the diner.

"You have some nerve laying your hands on me," I hiss once we're outside. "You know, I almost believed your sob story. I felt sorry for you, and then I learned the truth—the real truth, not your twisted version of it."

He shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"That's fine. I don't expect you to be honest with me," I reply. "But if you think for one second that I'm going to let you lie your way into Clementine's life—"

"You'll what?" he cuts me off, his brown eyes glistening with contempt. "Look, I can't make you believe me, and I can't make you want to have a relationship with me. However, if you try to interfere with me having a relationship with them"—he nods his head to the side, gesturing toward the diner—"then that's going to be a problem."

I swallow the lump forming in my throat and take a step back. I cross my arms, wearing a facade of bravery, even though everything about this man terrifies me to my core.

"Alyx and I were going to get married and raise Clem together, and then Bowie and Gemma ruined everything," he goes on. "For ten years, she refused to talk to me, but she finally gave in. This is my second chance to do things right, to have the family that was taken from me. You won't get in the way of that."

"Alyx is married to someone else," I toss back. "What are you gonna do? Break them up?"

He strides forward, lessening the distance between us until it's almost nonexistent. His hot breath hits my face, making me squeeze my eyes shut.

"I'm going to take back what's mine," he whispers.

I take a deep breath, mustering all of the courage I possess. "Is that what you did with my mom?" I ask through clenched teeth. "Did you take what you thought was yours?"

He glares at me, his expression hate-filled. I stumble in reverse, attempting to put as much space between us as possible. I reach into my pocket with my not-injured hand and find my phone, just in case I have to use it.

"Your mother was a little tease. She was asking for it," he sneers.

"Asking for it?" I gasp. "You assaulted her. You drove her to suicide. Because of you, I grew up without parents!"

"You got lucky. When your mom offed herself, she set you up for success."

I taste bile in the back of my throat. "Ex-excuse me?"