Nothing to Hyde: A Monster Brides Romance by S.C. Principale

Author:S.C. Principale [Principale, S.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: S.C. Principale
Published: 2024-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“Mama! Mama!” Bella raced to the fence around the preschool as Frankie showed up in her car. “You’re early! It’s still playtime!”

“It’s okay, Bella. Play for five minutes, okay?” Frankie waved from outside the fence and made her way inside to sign Bella out and collect her lunchbox and book bag. But as she walked around the perimeter, looking at the bright playground equipment with its chunky designs and primary colors, Frankie noticed a few things.

There was a kid who was moving really fast. He was blurring the air. And there was a little boy with dead white skin and thick black hair.

“Max! Give J.J. a turn. And Max—run slow.” Izzy appeared from the shadow of the climbing equipment and spoke to the speeding child, her tone patient and firm as if this was an often repeated reminder.

Maybe Eddie was right. Maybe Bella already knew that Pine Ridge was a little wacky.

But that didn’t mean Bella knew about Eddie and Jack.

Frankie felt her back pocket vibrate. Her cell phone.

Probably Jack. Or Eddie. Both, one, whatever. She wouldn’t answer.

But the number on the screen was unfamiliar and it was local, bearing the letters TRH Pine Ridge. Probably campus security or her boss checking on her.

Or Eddie calling from the bar. Jack calling from the hospital. Later on, she’d have to ask how he did it all.

No. I won’t. I don’t have to talk to him at all. Don’t have to ask him a damn thing.

“Hello?” Frankie answered in a flat voice. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing how much she wanted him, how badly she’d been hurt.

But he knows. He was in love, already arriving at the Big L while I was still falling. Because he wasn’t uncertain. Both halves of himself only ever agreed on one thing—me.

“You know, I could make so much trouble for you.”

Frankie tripped, the voice landing in her ear like a physical blow.

Hang up! Run!

But the voice continued even as she pulled the phone away from her ear. “You slept with a coach for a good grade. I’ll tell them that you introduced me to drugs, Frankie. Some sexy little thing, hitting on a confused man in a mental crisis while his marriage was going through a rough patch. Soon, I was your sex slave and addicted to all the drugs you were slipping me.”

“Shut up! No one is going to believe that, Burke. And even if it were true,” Frankie couldn’t completely force the tremor from her voice, but as she huddled by the cheery sign at the preschool doors, she hoped Burke would mistake it for raw fury, “that was four years ago. What about the girls after me? Hm? I saw the headlines.”

“You made them. You did this to me.”

“I wrote an essay about my struggles. Struggles you helped create. The fact that people found them interesting enough to share is about my talent as a writer and the fact that I’m a badass survivor. It’s not about you.” The

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