Chapter 161

The next morning, as I’m bringing Mia to breakfast, I’m surprised to find Angela there waiting for me. I’m not unhappy to see her exactly, but I wished she had texted me or something first so I would have been prepared.

Last time we talked, things didn’t exactly go well. And though we’ve more or less made up since then through texts and a couple of phone calls, I still feel on guard with her.

“Hi, Chloe,” she says with a kind smile. “Hi, Mia.”

I feel bad for mistrusting her. She’s always been nice enough to me, and I know her entire situation with Neil isn’t based on any personal feelings. Their engagement was arranged by their fathers and their stations, and their break up came from an opportunity.

Granted, that opportunity was Neil becoming weak with silver poisoning. But I guess I can’t blame her for finding a way out. Especially since Neil doesn’t seem to mind.

Actually, last time he mentioned it, he almost seemed relieved.

So I walk farther into the kitchen and set Mia up in her high chair like it’s no big deal.

“Hi, Angela.”

“I heard Neil is in the hospital,” she says. A bit of worry wilts her voice, and glancing at her, I see her facial expression matches. She’s genuine. “Is he okay?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “But he’s in the right place. The doctors are helping him.”

There’s more I could tell her, about the poisoning, about finding him on the floor, about Neil continuing to insist that he keep the silver inside him despite the doctor’s pleas.

But, despite my best efforts to see Angela as a good-natured friend, I can’t help but remember everything that’s happened. Will she use any information I give her in her fight against Neil?

I continue to go about my morning routine, preparing Mia’s bottle, giving it to her, and then preparing my own meal.

“Do you want something?” I ask as I grab the container of eggs.

“Only to talk,” Angela says. “You’re holding back, I can tell.”

“I’m not,” I lie.

“Chloe, what has happened, has happened. It’s done. The engagement is called off, and Neil and I are both free,” Angela says. “My concern for him is based purely in friendship.”

Angela stands from where she was seated at one of the stools near the counter and comes to my side near the stove. Like this, I can’t avoid looking at her. I can see her worry again, plainly, right there on her face.

“I am his friend, and yours too.” She looks down at where I’m holding the eggs. The egg carton is shaking. No, I am.

Maybe I have needed a friend, more than even I knew. Looking at Angela, I can see her concern isn’t just for Neil, but for me too.

“I’m the one who found him,” I say, and my voice cracks. I hate that I can’t get over this. It haunts me all the time, day and night. Whenever I close my eyes to blink, I see Neil passed out on the floor, struggling for breath.

“Oh, Chloe,” Angela says. She takes the eggs from my hand, places them on the counter. The next thing I know, she is pulling me into a hug.

I eagerly accept it. I bury my face into the crook of her neck and shoulder and hide for a while.

Angela is a true friend, I know that now. I should never have doubted her.

She holds me until Mia begins to fuss. By then, my tears have dried. Angela, friend that she is, immediately changes the subject to something innocuous, and we don’t bring up Neil or my crying again.

At the end of the day, long after Angela left, and shortly after I put Mia down for the night, I stood in the silence of the Pyramid and felt the quiet down to my bones. Mia is asleep, I can tell through the quiet in the baby monitor I’m carrying around. And Beau is off who knows where.

Without Archer, Steven, and Neil, the house just feels so… empty. Even when I didn’t always see them, just knowing they were there somewhere was a comfort. It was difficult to feel alone when the Pyramid was alive with people.

But now… I feel more like I’m in a tomb than a home.

I guess I should get used to this quiet. After all, in another couple of weeks, I’ll be out on my own again, and this house full of life I’ve adjusted to will only be a memory.

It’s not a choice I’m making. It’s just the way it has to be. If I try to stay, I would only endanger Neil.

Not that I want to stay anyway. This place has held me back from my dreams, what with the brothers constantly trying to stop me from pursuing life as a warrior.

Yet… despite our arguments and the generally dickish way they treated me at the beginning and still sort of do somethings though not as bad, this place has still come to feel like home.

I try not to think about it, but that never works. Instead, my feet lead me to stand outside a familiar door.

Beau’s.

I’m sure he’s gone for the night, or, Gods help me, he has someone in there with him. It’s pretty quiet though.

Honestly, I have no idea what I’m in for when I lift up my hand and knock.

“Be right there,” Beau says from inside. So he is home. His hurried footsteps come near the door, and he draws it open. He holds the door open wide with no effort to try to hide anyone behind him. The room is empty.

He was alone.

In fact, there’s a book faced down on the bed like he was… reading?

I’m curious at first, but then, remembering the book hidden in my underwear drawer, the one Beau seems to know by heart, I decide that it’s better not to know what he’s reading.

“You’re alone,” I say, because I’m still stuck on that fact.

“Am I?” Beau glances behind him at the empty room. “So I am.”

“You are hardly ever alone,” I say.

Beau laughs as he returns his gaze to me. “I don’t need a date every night, Nanny.”

That’s news to me. “You don’t?”

He rolls his eyes at me. “I’m perfectly capable of having a night in if the situation calls for it.”

“And what is the situation that calls for it?” I ask, yet as soon as the words are out of my mouth, I realize the answer.

Beau is worried about Neil. Why would he even feel like going out to pick up random women when his brother is in the hospital? It actually shows a lot of maturity. I would have thought he’d dive in head first to lose himself.

Maybe I need to stop underestimating the Hayes brothers. Just when I think I have them figured out, they have more layers to uncover.

“You already know the answer,” Beau says.

I do, so I lower my head a bit and say, “Sorry.”

“Or maybe you don’t,” Beau says, then, puzzled.

I look up at him again.

“Nanny, it’s not just Neil I’m worried about.”

“You don’t need to worry about me,” I say, though my heart skips a beat.

He ignores me. “I couldn’t pick up a date tonight,” he says. “What if you needed me?”