Chapter 64 Let It Out
Verena
I dumped a pack of salmon fillets into the cart. Matilda's hand flew to her chest, eyes widening in indignation as she plucked the salmon out of
the cart and returned it. “Not the fish…” she mumbled.
My brows knitted in confusion. “Why? I need the fish to make salmon and broccoli pasta for dinner. We agreed I’d cook dinner,”
Her gaze cut to mine as she shook her head briefly and let out a small laugh. “Yes, but not when you have no idea that the sight of fish in Mr.Daxton’s meal repulses him. Even the smell,”
My lips parted, embarrassment flaming up my cheeks as she patted my shoulder and walked past me. Daxton doesn’t eat fish?
My shoulders slouched in defeat. While Daxton snuggled into me last night, murmuring against my neck as he slept, my eyes were glued to my phone. I had gone through a hundred recipes on how to make the perfect salmon and broccoli pasta. I went through that stress just to discover that he doesn’t eat fish.
What other things did he not like?
How could I know so little about the man I was in a relationship with?
“Miss Verena,” Matilda called out, glancing at me over her shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up. He can sometimes be picky when it comes to food,”
“I had no idea,”
“Let me tell you something,” She pushed the cart. “He would always pick the vegetables he doesn’t like straight out of his meal,”
My heart sank further. “I really wanted to make dinner,” I muttered.
“We can make something else. Something that doesn’t have to do with using fish and broccoli,"
A small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth, my phone buzzing in my pocket as I whipped my phone out, only to roll my eyes. Cassandra’s lawyer. Again!
Since her arrest on drug possession charges, she hasn't stopped sending her lawyer to me. And the one time she called me, she had cried over the phone, saying ‘nonsense’ about how Daxton had set her up by planting drugs in her house.
How did that even make any sense?
She had also mentioned that if I forgave her for framing me, all of this could end. That woman was psychotic. Why would Daxton go that far just to get back at her?
He had simply fired Mandy and told Cassandra to leave the hotel without a refund, which she did—albeit reluctantly. I mean, that was all.
So, why would she think that he was the one behind her downfall?
I ignored the call, shoving it into my pocket. “Let me help with pushing the cart—” I offered while she gave me a curt nod, stepping aside as I grabbed the cart’s handle. “Now that salmon and broccoli are out of the picture, I have no idea what to make for dinner,”
“What would you suggest?”
She picked a packaged lamb chop from the aisle, tossing it into the cart. “Creamy chicken Alfredo excluding the parsley,”
“That bad?”
She nodded. “That bad”
My face broke into a smile. I would probably tease him with this newly-found discovery of him and maybe probe into the past that he’d always avoided.
I sucked in a deep breath, mind drifting back to Cassandra again as I ducked my head and sighed. I could still remember the way her voice croaked when she cried.
“I don’t like you, Verena but I’m saying this for your own good. That man isn’t perfect! If he could do this to me, then what do you think he would do to you when you want ‘out’. If I knew that he was this crazy, I would have kept my distance from you two,”
I shook my head, trying to squash the thoughts to the back of my mind but they persisted, rearing their ugly head every fucking second until I blurted out. “Matilda, how long have you worked for Daxton?”
She looked at me in surprise. “Seven years. I have been working for him before he moved here. I am the only one he trusts, that is why I live with him,”
“Nice,” I bobbed my head, swiping my tongue up and down my cheek.
“What do you think about him?”
“He might appear cold on the outside but he is a really nice person,”
She just said ‘Nice’— not the psychotic drug lord or the villain Cassandra wanted to paint him as.
“So you have never seen him at his worst?”
“If wearing an angry face and chalking down vodka counts as ‘worst’, then yes,” She tossed two more frozen chicken packs into the cart before her eyes slid back to mine. “I can’t think of any more things to get. Do you?”
Soon, I wheeled the cart to the cashier, the beep of the scanner stilling me in place as I stared at the little girl tugging at her mom’s dress for attention. The man I figured out to be her dad, scooped her in his arms while her brother ran around, their mum dishing out warnings that went completely ignored.
My heart squeezed hard in my chest. They reminded me of my family and more importantly, my brother—
Atlas.
Where the fuck was he even at? It’s been three years since I gave him space after he disappeared from the chaos.
My phone vibrated, jolting me out of my thoughts. Zita?
My face screwed up in confusion as I skimmed through her text. “Oh My God Verena. Have you seen the news? Please switch off your phone after this and stay away from the TV. I’m only looking out for my fiancé's ex. Stay safe,”
What the fuck was she on about?
“So your bill is $242.75,” The cashier’s voice snapped back to the present as I fumbled for my card. “Miss Verena Carson…” she added, causing me to look up at her in surprise.
“You know my name,”
“Just now,”
My smile widened. “How, I don’t have any name tag on,” I held the card out, her gaze coasting over my head before she fixed her eyes back on me.
“Isn’t that your picture on the screen”
“Me?” I pointed to myself, opening my mouth to speak when the words in my throat died.
The small TV mounted behind me, showed a breaking news alert.
My heart skittered to a stop. The space shifted around me. The floor vomited its content to swallow the ‘vile’ me instead as the words on the TV floated around me.
—Verena Carson, hidden heiress of the Carsons’ family. Family scandal. Kian Cooper. Daxton Cooper. Romantic affair with the nephew and his uncle. Caught kissing them both on the same night—
No!
“Mr Carson and his family should have died a long time ago,” The past comment that I had struggled to wipe out of my memories came back, detonating the panic inside of me as my lungs iced over.
Air.
My chest tightened so hard that breathing seemed impossible. “I need air,” my throat clawed for it as someone cupped my elbow, pulling me away. “We need to leave now,”
I struggled to peel my eyes from the screen, my heart pounding violently in my chest—an uneven staccato that drowned all the noises away.
“I wish his daughter would also fall to her death,”
I slammed my trembling fingers over my mouth to stop the panic rising in my throat.
“Evil family,”
“Cursed,”
Tears sprang in my eyes, and the imagination of the horrible things that could be written about me right now flooded my head.
“Not surprised, she is as evil as her dad,”
The pounding in my chest worsened. No, I wasn’t evil.
“She is the worst thing on earth,”
“A slut,”
A wave of nausea washed over me, and everything faded into a blur as I struggled to force air back into my lungs.
“Bitch,”
“Whore”
“Die!”
“Verena…” I suddenly gasped when a voice snapped me out of my head, and the moment I caught sight of Daxton rushing towards me, my body jerked violently with sobs as he pulled me into his arms.
It wasn’t until he wrapped his hands around me that the tears ran down my cheeks and I let it all out.