This is book 2 in the "Beautiful Destruction" series. You MUST READ "Theirs to Claim" first in order to understand this one.
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When I was ten, my father told me that all of my dreams would one day come true. Naively, I believed him.
I may have gr...
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Chapter 12 : Xavier Saturday, November 26th, 2022
I can feel Madelyn's absence as though it had placed an actual physical hole in my chest.
We'd let her leave, but she was still gone now. She was gone, and I couldn't handle it.
"Send the twins out to keep an eye on her. Madelyn will not be leaving New York again." I tell Caleb, the man who'd stood upstairs silently as he watched Madelyn get into one of our limos. It's been ten minutes since and he still hasn't moved.
He never gave me any sort of indication that he heard me, but I know he did. I also knew there was likely plenty he had to say to both Alec and I about our interactions with her, but wouldn't speak until Nina was out of hearing range.
The amount of adoration my little niece has for Madelyn was something not a single one of us had expected, however yet again, there also isn't a single person who could blame her.
The woman who stood before us only minutes ago was a firecracker within every part of her, so much pent up emotion going off in sparks the second someone was brave enough to set it off.
Her rage, her fire, her fight. It was beautiful, even with the obvious pain and sadness that came flooding with it.
"Uncle Avi?" Nina said my name in that cute little way of hers, pulling my attention to the fact she was right in front of me, hesitantly tugging at the knee of my pants.
A softer smile appeared on my face as I visibly relaxed at the sight of her, knowing she was back and truly safe. Her big bright eyes blink up at me as though she can sense the tension traveling through my body, but when I bend and sweep her up into my arms, she giggles like all is forgotten.
If only that were true.
"Right, lunch." I smile, carrying her over to the kitchen and plopping her gently down on the countertop that has remained untouched for months now. While it was still clean, the passion to cook has kind of lost me.
But still, I gave Nina my best attempt at a grin as I rested my hand on the granite, Caleb and Alec joining us once they were finished with what I'd told them to do.
"What do you feel like, Nini? I ask only once I'm sure she's not going to try and jump straight off of the counter, leaving to open the fridge to look at what we have.
I was doing anything I could to take my mind off of everything that was happening around me, because while I know how to put up a pretty damn good front to the world, what no one seems to realize is how much I'm falling apart on the inside.
That is, with the exception of the two men who always seem to remain in my life, even when we're pissed at each other in the ways we are now.
"I miss her." Nina says quietly instead, not answering my question but offering something so much more honest. Something all four of us felt.
