A Divorce He Regrets (Alissa Nexus) novel Chapter 350

KYE

I used to think that blackmail was just a tool and a way to keep people under my control, but with Ava… I had told myself that it was to hurt her, to make her squirm. And somewhere along the line, it stopped being just about leverage. This shit isn’t helping.

I caught myself watching her too much, wanting reactions that weren’t fear from her and wanting her to talk to me without thinking twice about it. I even did the stupid thing… acted like a normal teenager and asked her out. It didn’t work.

Yes, I had been successful with going into their house, but I wasn’t successful with her. So, I decided that maybe I just needed to try more. And push again.

And then my phone buzzed, pulling me out of my thoughts. I pulled it out to see that it was a message from my uncle.

The picture he sent made my chest tighten… it was one of my father’s watches. It had ba black leather strap, brushed steel face and a faint scratch across the bottom like a scar. I have always wanted this watch. I had always seen the watch around the Osborne house and I had been told that I would be getting it when my birthday came.

That was enough to remind me of my mission and what I needed to do. I’m not here to catch feelings, I’m here to get revenge.

I locked the phone before I could respond, but the message dug in like glass splinters. I have to do this for my father, if not for anything else.

The sweetness I had been trying to fake with Ava turned sour in my mouth and I pushed it aside.

Over the next few days, I shifted my focus. No more hovering around Ava’s locker or watching her across the cafeteria… I didn’t even look her way at school. I kept my earbuds in as I listened in on every conversation that her father had.

Most of it was useless, meetings about shipping routes, staff schedules and someone complaining about catering. But two days in, one late evening, his voice changed, it was sharper and more careful.

“…the Aurora Initiative’s Gala is next Friday. This project is crucial. If Halden and Co. gets the contract, we’re finished.” He sounded frustrated and tired. “We have to get this thing before they show up, do you understand?”

Halden and Co.? I froze. This could be it.

I recognized the name and I knew that it was not an ordinary name… it was a mask. A name my grandmother used when she didn’t want the Osborne name attached to him.

She wasn’t my blood grandmother, but my grandmother’s sister, the woman who raised me after my parents were gone. She taught me how to hold a knife and a smile in the same hand.

If Halden and Co. were gunning for the same project the Grahams were, that meant that the Osbornes were already in play. And I could help tip the scale.

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