Her Silent Revenge novel Chapter 58

"I don't think anyone saw this coming. Where to next?" Patton says. He sends me a quick glance.

"Back to my place would be great. Arlo's hungry and it's getting pretty late." I wince as I remember our other problem. Food.

"I want pizza for dinner!" Arlo pipes up from the back. For once, I can't argue.

There's a pie shop just a couple blocks away where they can walk the delivery over to our place instead of risking their delivery cars. So yes, I'll order and we'll sit on the sofa and eat and for once I won't fuss about the cost.

"You can never go wrong with pizza. Choice of kings," Patton says firmly.

Arlo laughs. "Stay and eat pizza with us, Mr. Rory."

Patton side-eyes me, but I don't dare look at either of them. Instead, I stare dead ahead.

If I narrow my eyes enough, there's a chance I can bleed through into another dimension where my son isn't asking his unknown father to stay for dinner.

"Your mom's had a rough night, Arlo. Don't know if she wants company."

"Yeah, she does," Arlo announces with innocent confidence. "It's okay, isn't it, Mom?"

My lungs lock up for the hundredth time tonight. This cannot be happening.

If I could snap my fingers and fall through the floor—to the center of the Earth, ideally—I would.

"It would be pretty terrible if I didn't say thank you," I say, well aware that Patton literally rescued us in time for a late dinner. "Patton, why don't you stick around for some pizza? If you don't have other plans, I mean…"

Those mundane words cut me from the inside out.

And he darts me a glance like he knows I'm mere seconds from having a nervous breakdown.

"You're sure you're up for that? Don't invite me on the boy's account." "No, no, you didn't have to do any of this, but you did. I'm more than grateful." The words come out bitter and I bite my tongue. "I just mean I owe you one. Personally."

He navigates the icy roads with an expert hand and amazing tires that make the dicey conditions easy to manage.

"No special favors here. You might think it's a big deal, but really it helps me," he explains. "The Cardinal's too damn new to lose a manager, even for a day. We can't afford any crappy reviews and we need you there for your shift."

"Business," I repeat. "Oh, yes. Of course."

It would be so easy to believe him, just going by what he says. Except when he looks at me, his eyes say something else.

They shine like blue beacons, like I matter, and that scares me more than anything else that's happened tonight.

I can't start mattering to this man. Not with our past.

"Ready when you are, boss." Smiling unevenly, I help Arlo out of his seat, and we hurry to the building.

Patton leads the way. I can tell by the way he walks that he's checking to make sure our path is salted and safe. I'm glad the maintenance folks are good about that here.

The cold nips at my face and seizes my lungs. I try to tell myself it's the only reason I'm struggling to breathe as we stumble over the last snowy patch inside.

All three of us.

Here we go, primed for our next disaster.

It's just pizza, idiot, I tell myself. But I know it's not.

It's an existential threat to my world.

Whatever else happens, we can't have any relationship that crosses professional wires when it will bring him too close to the truth about Arlo.

And if my moral compass ever stops spinning—if I choose to tell him about his son—it has to be on my terms. Not because I'm falling apart and dumping everything in one long, chaotic panic attack after a rotten night.

As we take the elevator to my floor, I wonder what I'm really getting myself into with this pizza party.

Just how much damage can my heart take when I bring Patton Rory home?