Chapter 51

Renee’s POV

I don’t turn back to look at Jasper. I can’t. I don’t look anywhere except at my feet. I watch as my left foot picks up, moves forward, steps down, and then the right foot do the same thing. It’s like I’m watching someone else walk, someone else is moving my body.

I keep wondering if this is a dream, but I know it’s not. It’s just my life unfolding before me. Living as Renee was the dream and now I am awake as Annie again.

People are staring, whispering. Some have their phones out and are recording. This will go viral and then it will be old news, something forgotten. Unfortunately, real life doesn’t work that way. I’ll be stuck with Eric now for a very long time.

All the forums on social media about the alpha’s wife disappearing and then being rediscovered are going to be lively with debate, but not a single person will wonder if I’m okay.

I ignore the phones and the people behind them, they don’t deserve a reaction or a show.

Debbie’s pink shoes skip in and out of my peripheral. My own blood chose to work against me.

Instead she chose to work along side with the other blood type running through her, and she doesn’t even know him.

Somehow I knew that escaping to another state and starting my own business wouldn’t work. It was fun to fantasize about, but even as I was making the plans it was as though I was doing it with the understanding it wouldn’t happen.

We leave the airport. The doors shut behind us and suddenly everything is finalized. A plane flies overhead.

Eric calls over the valet, Debbie sits on her luggage, and I watch the plane get smaller in the sky.

It’s a soft gray day outside and it’s cold. Where we were heading was going to be sunny and warm, now I realize that I’ll be spending winter with Eric.

With my luck we might get a snowstorm that traps us inside.

When the plane is out of sight, I look back at Debbie. I’ve never been truly angry with her before, she’s so young after all that half the time when she does something frustrating it’s because of a silly mistake. This, though, was no mistake. Debbie used her phone, that I got her for safety purposes, and told the one person I was trying to escape from the exactly where we were.

I can’t say she disobeyed me, I never explicitly told her she couldn’t tell Eric or anyone where we were going, but she l betrayed me and that hurts the most.

“Why are you looking at me like that, mommy?” Debbie asks, her voice dripping with a sweet-innocence. I shake my head and look away.

“I’m just trying to figure out why you did what you did,” I say.

Just then the valet returns with Eric’s sports car. The few pedestrians hurrying to catch their flight stop in their tracks to check out his car.

I note that this is something I’ll have to get used to again, people staring at us because of all our luxuries.

The valet opens the car doors for us and then goes to grab our luggage to put in the trunk.

Debbie’s mouth fall la open and her eyes go wide. “This is your car?” She gawks. Eric’s lips pull into a lopsided grin.

“It’s not he if our family cars,” he says and plops down into the driver side.

Debbie excitedly hurries into the backseat and checks out all the gadgets. Everything I try to teach her about gratitude and generosity is vanishing before my eyes.

I get into the passenger seat. The new leather creaks under the sudden weight , telling me that it hardly gets any use. The fresh leather hits my nostrils and I know I’ll have a headache before we make it back to Eric’s.

“There’s a t.v back here!” Debbie yells. Eric watches her though the rear view mirror with a proud smile.

“Sit down Deborah and put your seatbelt on,” I say sharply.

I hear Debbie plop onto the seat and yank the belt over her. Eric gives me a look, I feel it but I can’t see it. I don’t bother to look. I keep my eyes trained on the window.

Eventually Eric gets the hint that I’m not going to look at him and he peels away from the airport entrance.

The car is smooth and the engine hums as though asking to go faster.

“Can we put on the radio!” Debbie says leaving forward in her seat.

“Sit back,” I tell her. Eric turns on the radio and before any sounds can come through the speakers I shut it off.

“Why did you do that, mom?” Debbie whines. The question provokes me. I turn so fast in my seat that my seatbelt hardly has time to stretch with me.

“Why did you tell Eric where we were?” I shoot back at her.

Debbie leans back in her seat probably hoping that she can sink far back enough that she’ll simply disappear.

“I didn’t want to leave,” Debbie says quietly.

“Why didn’t you just say that to me?” I ask keeping my voice at the same volume despite her diminishing voice.

“You wouldn’t have listened,” she tweedles with her thumbs. I exhale.

“Maybe not but you know what? I’m the parent Debbie I get to make these decisions,” I tell her though I’m aware of the fact that we’re in this very situation because I can’t make those decisions. Especially not now. Eric will be making all the decisions now.

“It’s just not fair that just because you don’t want a husband that I can’t have a daddy!” Debbie cries.

“It isn’t her fault, I knew she was my daughter from the first time I met her,” Eric says and I roll my eyes but ignore him. If he really knew that, then he would have taken her and me back on the spot.

“How did he find out you’re his daughter and I’m his ex-wife?” I keep my eyes focused on Debbie, aiming the question at her.

Eric picks up the speed as we come up to the highway. Debbie looks out the window, ignoring me just like I’m ignoring Eric.

“Debbie, answer me.” I command her.

She reluctantly looks back at me. “I told him I transformed. That was it, I didn’t tell him anything else,” she pleas.

“Except that we were at the airport,” I point out. With that, I turn back around and slump in my seat.

I’m doing no good by berating Debbie. She’s only five. I have to remind myself.

“She told me she transformed and it’s not rocket science to figure out the rest,” Eric says but I pivot my body towards the door and away from him.

“I had a feeling from the beginning,” Eric goes on his every word drilling irritation into my being. “Then she had the rage fit at school, then again at soccer practice, then when Mia kidnapped her,” Eric continues to rattle off each time he almost saw Debbie transform.

All I hear is how sloppy I’ve been in keeping her a secret. In the end it doesn’t even matter all the times he had his suspicions because all it took was Debbie outright telling him and it confirmed everything he thought.

“Renee,” Eric barks. He doesn’t like me ignoring him. I snicker to myself. Oh well.

Eric presses on the gas and we fly down the highway. Our body’s are thrusted back into the seats from the speed. He doesn’t let up until we pull him to his house thirty minutes later.

He throws the car in park and climbs out the driver side, slamming the door shut.

“This is our house?” Debbie squeaks and rushes out the car to run up the long manicured front yard.

I stay in my seat, looking at the house from the window. It’s a mansion with a long loopy driveway and spacious land, yet I feel like I’m suffocating.