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The day after Dante left, Sash announced proudly to her father and stepain, having finally got in contact with her errant stepbrother, who much to her surprise, see hand after all Henry nodded quietly to the news as he sipped his coffee, congratulating Sash for finally getting through to him, while Tracy smiled in a kind of distracted way, jealous perhaps that her stepdaughter had succeeded where she had always failed

She moved out that afternoon, this time in a taxi and not in her father’s beaten up, junkyard-bound Sedan At first she had no idea how o Stopping in a hotel see to do, especially because she had no idea how long Dante would take to coht her to this one, and when she flashed the credit card and inquired at the desk, they seemed more than happy to accommodate her

Sash durand piano There are others there already fros that Sash still hasn’t had tiets herself a bottle of water from the mini-bar and then heads to the terrace to look out over the city As the sun sets over the skyline, Dante’s tower seely always there in front of her, she wonders which direction Los Angles is in, and what Dante ht this minute

If he was here or she were there, they’d fuck She’d make him hold her throat like last time and fuck her hard She’d make hiain She’d suck his cock, indulge herself coe that perfect skin and run her hands through his tousled hair and over his bulging ed to hiirl like me?

Before she heads back inside, she checks her phone for the fiftieth ti her where she’s gone, a ree to her dance class, an invitation to a friend’s party, a whole host of spaleor when he’s likely to be home

Sash heads back inside She flops down on the sofa and clicks on the oversized flat-screen TV She’s been to local cine as this, and after a while the vibrancy of the iive her a head ache She flicks frolycommercials Eventually she turns it off, already bored and unable to be distracted She turns over, stretches out legs that don’t even reach the ar

A million new dresses are just not the sah She needs her stepbrother back

Chapter 2

Shopping bags cover almost every available space below the table and on it Half of them have been opened, while the other half have been looked at briefly and pushed to the side There is wrapping paper bundled up carelessly, some of which still litters the floor by their feet

Oliver lies on the ground, absorbed in one of several new and very expensive toys Froain approval or to ask hi works

Dante is affectionate with the boy He tries to lift him up and put him on his lap, but Oliver prefers to h Dante hasn’t quite gained his trust yet It’s a sentiment the boy shares with his mother Tess looks from Oliver up to Dante She can see so much of Dante in their boy it almost worries her Aside from the dark skin he’s inherited froh She wonders whether he’ll groith the cold and calculating attitude of his father, or inherit her own fiery, but fiercely protective nature In short, she wonders whether he’ll ever find himself in

this situation, twenty years fro across the table at the oing to do everything in her power to ensure he doesn’t too

“You know his birthday o ht?” Tess says

“I saw your e”, Dante says

“I thought you et hold of you then, but, you know-”

Tess cuts her own sentence short, tired of sounding like a broken record “He wanted to see you” she says instead

“I’ve been busy, Tess”, Dante offers “I couldn’t get away from work”

“You never could”, she says “That was part of the problem”

“I didn’t come here to talk about that, Tess”, Dante says “I ca up”

They both take a eous little boy and happy too Dante feels inordinately proud of hih has no desire to see hi he exists seeh for him

“That’s what they do”, Tess says, as though Dante had never taken a row up Most parents notice it on a daily basis, you know”

“Let’s not start that again, please”, Dante says “I’ you my time”

“He needs his father, Dante”

“I did alright without one”, Dante says

Tess is shocked to hear him say it She pauses a moment before she composes an answer

“Are you punishing your own child because of what happened to you?”

“That’s not what I meant”, Dante says

Tess shakes her head “You’re so else, you know that?”

“You and I have moved on”

“You and I never-“, Tess reminds him “We never were”

“What do you want from me, Tess?” Dante asks

“I want you to give this boy a proper life”, she says, pointing at him