DECEIT (B723) by Hazel Grace (ebook reader for surface pro .TXT) 📕

sauce is showing on our pie and pulling out small grabs of cheese with her tiny hands, which is making it take five times longer.

Not that I really give a shit.

Maddy and I have formed a relationship that she won’t let me but accept because she is my mini-me, and she’s quiet when I need her to be. Like she understands when I need her to be. A little mini-me of some sorts but she reminds me of Scarlett when we were kids and I can’t help but enjoy her company.

“Do you just want to taste cheese, Maddy,” Hardy teases. “Or are you going to throw three pounds of mozzarella on it?”

She ignores him, so focused on her creative pizza art that I answer for her. “Mind your own business, Dad, this is our project.”

Even though I haven’t done anything but be her stool.

“And ours is the best!” she exclaims excitedly, throwing her little hands in the air and creating confetti cheese to fly everywhere.

“I don’t know if I’d call that pizza art but—“

“Listen, old man,” I interject. “We’re gonna kick you out of the kitchen if you don’t stop hating on our shi—stuff.” I jiggle my leg to gain my niece’s attention. “Isn’t that right, Mads?”

“Stop it, daddy,” she scolds, not bothering to lift her head to acknowledge him.

I give him a winning grin and he returns it with a perked brow.

“Alright—“ He swipes up his Bud Light. “—I’ll just invite Lucy over for your Uncle Kace.”

My eyes narrow because the shit isn’t funny.

When Lucy walked into my house after sucking my dick only an hour before, I had to come clean to Hardy.

Talk about the most uncomfortable situation when you’re not that close to a sibling than telling them that their girl has had their lips wrapped around your cock too.

Hardy—thank fuck—thought it was funny. I guess they had just started casually dating, and she’s become a joke ever since.

I’ve been at the butt of it; it’s been great.

My phone goes off, and I mindlessly grab it from the table to answer it. “Yeah.”

“Bish.” Kyson’s voice is strained, setting my body rigid and on guard immediately. “Where are you?”

My brows furrow at Kyson’s question. “Home.”

“You need to leave and come up to Marty’s place.”

My heart halts mid-beat, and Maddy’s weight in my lap is making me feel contained and anxious since she's on top of me.

Sliding my chair back, I place my phone down and lift her into my seat, telling her to save it for me. I feel Hardy’s heavy focus on me but I don’t spend the time to explain, I just move outside.

“Explain,” I leer through the phone. “What happened?”

“Dude, I…I don’t know how…” My heart begins to increase its beats, alluding that something is off.

Something is wrong.

When Kyson is the Yin to my Yang, he rarely loses his entire cool. And right now, I can hear every crack of his voice.

“She’s gone.”

“Gone?” My tone is almost inaudible, and I know who he’s speaking of, but I don’t want that word and her in the same sentence.

Did she fucking run off and marry that stupid motherfucking Alexander?

I realize it would eventually happen, but I thought she’d at least invite B723, and I’d have to debate with myself on actually going to torture myself and watch it.

“Emmy…Bish…she’s dead.”

You’re only supposed to die once, that’s how God intended it to be. And for the grief and pain that I put B723 through, I’m not relying on any of them forgiving me after this.

The deal was that Lucien was going to tell Alexander that I suffered and died from intense bleeding. Mills identified my body, and I passed away from a car accident, having to have an emergency birth to my twins to save their lives.

I could only touch my son and daughter through clear plastic once before I had to go.

I barely saw them through all the tears that flooded my eyes. My words definitely weren’t English as I promised I’d be back soon, and they’d be protected.

After my surgery, I spent less than twenty-four hours in the hospital before Lucien and Mills transported me out dressed with a hoodie over my head by ambulance. Then Mills was taking me to the safe house that I rented.

When I believed that saying goodbye to B723 would’ve been the most challenging thing imaginable, leaving behind Atlas and Alaric is worse.

They’re mine, and I can’t have them.

They’d be pawns for Alexander, and he would fight Mills tooth and nail to have them back.

Because unfortunately, I received more bad news.

A piece that made my skin crawl and my wanting to go back in time and change every poor decision regarding Alexander that I’ve made.

Alaric and Atlas are his children.

I practically fell from my hospital bed in despair when Lucien came to me with the results. This couldn’t get any worse. I’m already failing as a mother, to my friends.

I have to kill my children’s father—period.

Putting him in jail is too risky because he could also get a plea deal, get off early on good behavior and come back for revenge.

Return back for the kids.

I can’t do that.

I’m not going to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life and become a helicopter mom, strangling my kids with my worry because Alexander is still breathing.

I’m leaving nothing to chance and losing everything in return.

For my funeral, it’ll be a closed casket due to my mangled body, as Lucien so kindly suggested. Mills promised me pink flowers, but I wish for a miracle where I could go back nine months and do this differently.

I don’t regret my children.

I just hate that I let him in.

Now in the car with my best friend, he hasn’t spoken to me since we left the hospital. But he’s been there, just silently, every step of the way, and I haven’t pressed to have him entertain me nor pretend like this is okay.

This is so beyond jacked up as you can get.

The biggest deceit.

But