Chapter Seventeen

NOW

"That was some confession," Darrow said to Angel, whose cheeks were still bright red with blood.

"I mean every word," she said, trembling with desire. "I want you. I need you. Please, please!"

"Then do something for me," Darrow said with a smile.

"What is it? I'll do anything!"

"Go sleep in my guest room for tonight."

❃❃❃

It was the day after she spent the night sleeping at the guest room like he instructed and she felt the familiar ache growing between her legs as she peeked into the binoculars. She had waited for him all night to burst in through the door to take her, but he hadn't. And now, she was starting to find out exactly why he did not.

Shannon was walking about inside her binoculars and as she panned down, Darrow was sitting in a car outside her house, staring into her windows and watching her in secret.

Well, well, Darrow himself was great at stalking too.

Except that he was stalking the wrong person.

Angel panned the binoculars back at the bitch, gritting her teeth in fury. Who did she think she was? Stealing her man? She was shaking her baby up and down as she walked about the room, which was clearly decorated as a nursery for the baby.

Soon after, a man walked into the nursery and collected the baby from Shannon, hugging it and placing kiss after kiss on the baby's face. Angel sent a quick fervent prayer for the prosperity of their marriage up to Heaven before she gave a light cry out.

Dropping her binoculars, she sat up in the bushes and smacked her hand across one of her calves. The dead bug fell to the ground, leaving a nasty bite on her ankle. She cursed at the bug and tried to shy away when she saw another bug inching towards her.

Cursing again, she leapt out of the bush, her binoculars skipping across the asphalt from her. She swiped angrily at her calves over and over again. Furious, she closed her hands around some branches and tore them from the bush to fling towards the ground.

"Angel."

She froze. She'd recognise that voice anywhere. She turned around bit by bit, her mouth dropping low when she saw him standing before her, his eyes scanning her surroundings.

"Why are you here? Are those binoculars yours? What were you doing?"

"No, they're not mine. Someone must've dropped them," she said hastily, laughing nervously at the same time. "I was just walking around to get some exercise. What about you?"

"Does being inside a bush constitute as exercise? Is that a new sport?"

She bit her lips as she considered her next move. "I dropped something inside, I was looking for it. What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story, would you like to come sit with me in my car?"

"Sure," she said and followed him into his car. She looked around, realising that he had managed to lose his secret service. Closing the car door beside her, she smiled as he passed her a grape candy, which she took readily, making sure to brush her fingers against his. "So, you were saying?"

"I was watching my ex-wife and her new life with her current husband," he said candidly. "Shannon was the love of my life, and I know being born into money is something many people crave, but it comes with its curses. She married me for my money, and took half of it with her when she left for another man. To this day, I don't know if she ever truly loved me, or if a divorce was what she wanted from the start."

"I would never do that to you, Darrow," she said. "Fuck Shannon."

"Don't speak of her that way."

Angel gripped hard onto the side of the car seat. "If she loved you, she wouldn't have left you."

"You see, I'm having trouble believing that because I remember all the good times. It seemed… so real. So perfect."

"I get it," Angel said.

"How?"

"I may not look like it, but I understand unrequited love more than you know. The feeling of loving someone, but knowing the entire time that the person doesn't return your love, and probably never will. I could try until I bled, gave up everything I had, sacrificed anything, but that person still wouldn't spare me even one look or thought. I know, Darrow, how much it hurts."

He stared at her, emotion plain in his eyes. "Nobody I know understands how I feel. You're the first. How do you cope?"

"How do I cope? I won't give up. I've been in love with the same man for a large portion of my life, and if I had to give up the rest of my life before he even considers me, I'd willingly give that up as well. I know I'm crazy but I can't give up, not when loving him has been the reason why I choose to get up everyday, even when my own mind attacks me constantly."

"And who is this man?"

"You know who," Angel said.

Darrow faced the windshield with a chuckle. "You love me that much, Angel?"

"You have no idea."