Outside the Lines by Melissa Sky

Author:Melissa Sky [Sky, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2023-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Repressed Their Noble Rage

A few days later, I found myself at the house of Stella’s father, Dr. Henry Keenan. His house was just as spectacular as his ex-wife’s but had a very different feel to it, due in part to the fact that Stella was methodically redecorating it from the ground up. As a consequence, it was much warmer and more comfortable than Rebecca’s home, full of wood and antiques and furniture that actually invited use.

The second Dr. Keenan was surprisingly older in appearance. He had gray hairs about his temples that he didn’t bother to dye, and I wondered how that affected how he was perceived in Hydra, signaling as it did that he was a FirstGen who had taken the Remedy later in life. It certainly made him stand out amongst Old Bloods, not that he’d probably notice, for he was as oblivious and as obsessed with his work as his ex-wife, though he seemed more balanced in the sense that he always made time for Stella. He kept crazy hours but made a point of having dinner with her. And me. For I was treated not as a BabyDoll but as a valued guest. I was even given regular clothes and a guest room, much to his other BabyDolls’ envy and curiosity.

Henry was often distracted and lost in thought. But I liked him right away. He had this adorable habit of sort of patting Stella every time he was near her. An awkward, loving little tap on the shoulder or knee or the top of her head. I found it endearing. And he seemed to accept her for exactly who she was, with none of the disappointment her mother showed. He showed me all around the house when I first arrived, proudly showing off the rooms his daughter had transformed.

“Of course, I know nothing of interior decorating,” he explained. “I just told Stella, ‘Make it nice,’ and she’s got such an eye for these things that it’s just right,” he said as he pat, pat, patted her on the arm.

No wonder Stella chose to live with her dad over her mother. She bloomed in his presence, at ease and eager to please, always looking for little ways to attend to his comfort. He was a soft-spoken man, quiet and easygoing with a dry sense of humor. Though he was very different from Rebecca, I could see how they fit together, and I wondered what had driven them apart.

Stella was delighted to have me all to herself without my regular BabyDoll duties, and we found many frivolous, fun ways to fill the hours. If her father disapproved of our connection, he never let on. I hadn’t forgotten my mission, though. I’d updated the Defiance after the Juvenalia and my “chess game” with Rebecca. I’d informed them of the house switch, though I’d assumed they would somehow be keeping tabs on me, even without the book’s secret message. I wasted no time in trying to get Stella’s dad to help me find my mother.

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