Chapter 73 Wishlist
Ryder's POV
Livid
That was the word.
Burning rage.
That was what I felt
"Oh it's you!" Mrs. Kennedy smiled at me as she held the door open.
My hands balled into a fist. All I saw was red as I stared at her.
"Are you here for Emma? I'll call her for you."
"Don't bother yourself." I spoke, my tone hard. "I don't care about that one."
She paused, her eyebrow furrowed, "excuse you?"
"You heard me, Mrs. Kennedy. Do I call you that?" I folded my arms.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know. Do you still want to be a Kennedy? I mean, you're -"
"Don't. You. Dare." She gritted out, her face turning hard. She looked behind her shoulder, laughing as she turned back to me. "Now I know. It's you she's been hanging out with."
"Yup. And you know what that means." I smirked at her.
"Trust me, you don't scare me." She scoffed.
"Because you don't know me, Mrs. Faith Liberty." Her eyes widened in shock, her head spinning back into the house like she was on a lookout.
"How did you -"
"Let me guess, your husband doesn't know who you really are, huh? The daughter of a poor drunk gambler who still struggles to survive." I watched the color drain from her face.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You know, you made the man miserable, I must say. He was going to get you both a new life with the money he had hit but what did you do? You stole everything from him and ran off to this city, posing with your mother's maiden name. A woman you have never seen in your life. Hilarious!" Her hands were trembling by her corner. She quickly clenched them.
"You... I... "
"Uriel may be one of your life mistakes but I'm not. She has soft spot for you as her mother, but I don't. You keep hurting her and just one day, I'll make sure you get paid back in your own fucking coin, Faith." I growled, leaning down to stay face to face with her. "I am not Uriel. I'm your worst nightmare."
"Ryder!" Uriel yelled from a distance, panic in her voice.
"Give her your permission. Come on." I nodded at Faith.
Her throat bobbed up and down, her eyes shaking with fright. She shut her eyes for a split second and when she opened them, she was back to pretending.
"Ryder is here to pick you up. Go with him." She said, her tone robotic.
"Uh..."
Uriel looked between her mother and I.
I stretched my hand out, smiling at her, "come on."
Uriel slowly walked up to me, not looking away from her mother. Shock cloned her face.
"What did you tell her?" Uriel asked once I shut the door behind us
"That I was taking you out?" Smirking, I opened the door to the car.
"She looked ... I don't know. That didn't look like my mother at all. She would've flipped the house upside down." Uriel shook her head, her face creased into a small frown.
When I got into the car, I placed one hand on her thigh, just roaming my hand around her body, taking on the beauty sitting beside me.
"You look very pretty."
Uriel's lips stretched into a smile, "stop flattering me."
"Not even in my dream. I'm telling you the fucking truth." Leaning close, I placed a soft pack on her cheek.
Her cheeks turned red immediately - like it always does.
"Where are we going?" She sniffled as she spoke. That seemed to remind me that she had been crying.
My blood boiled all over.
Letting out a steamy breath, I said, "you'll see."
We hit the road immediately. We didn't talk much as she was on her phone, replying text messages from her friends.
I know this because I heard a voice note of them singing a happy birthday song and apologizing for not wishing earlier and for not being available.
Like hell I wanted them to be.
Uriel brought her phone down when the car stopped. Her face was brighter than earlier. More beautiful.
God, I could take her right here.
Chill, Ryder. Chill.
"Shall we?"
She nodded, letting me lead her.
Lacing our fingers together, I pulled her with me into the art gallery. My eyes didn't leave her face as I wanted to capture the moment first.
"Oh my God! It's the Lincoln Art Gallery." She yelled in amusement, her eyes lighting up with excitement.
"Yup."
"How did you get us in? It's not budget friendly. For students like us. I also heard you need good connection to get a VIP pass." She looked at me. Her mouth fell open when I held a VIP pass slip in my hand. "No shit!"
"It's yours, baby."
"Ryder! No, I can't take this. Let's ask for a refund please." She shook her head, her eyes searching for something. "Where's the security?"
"Baby, breathe." I chuckled, holding her shoulder. "VIP pass are gotten by connection not money. Don't bother yourself about it."
"But -"
"Lincoln is inside the white room now. You can take a picture with him, discuss - whatever you like."
She threw herself on me, holding me tight like her life depended on it. Then I heard it - a light sob.
"Come on, don't cry."
"Nobody has ever done something this good for me. Well, except my friends but you get me." She muttered into my chest.
"I'm not anybody, baby. I care about you a lot. I like yo- seeing you happy."
Shit.
Watch your mouth, Ryder.
"Wait, how'd you know about my love for art?" She looked at me, eyebrow raised.
"I kinda stumbled on your wishlist that sat on your dresser." I scratched the back of my neck.
"You snoop!" She poked my chest. "You're lucky I like you."
She froze, her face pale like she had seen a ghost
"And we wouldn't be here if the feelings weren't mutual."
There. I said it guys.
Her eyes twinkled, a big smile appearing on her lips. "Let's go see Lincoln."
Chuckling, I followed her.
When we got there, I stood by a corner, watching them interact. Afterwards, I took them good photos together - one of which I was going to enlarge for her later on.
She dragged me to a photo booth in the gallery, where we took lots of silly, cute and horrible pictures.
I had my set of favorites though.
"God, you don't know how much what you've done means to me." Uriel sighed, holding her straw away from her lips.
We had stopped to get some liquid shits.
"I'm glad."
I felt her gaze on me first before her voice followed, "I wanted to be an artist. You know, share my wide imagination and creativity; speak through images; have my own art gallery some day... Just cool artist things."
"You can do all of that, baby. It's not too late, you know?" My hand found her thigh, squeezing lightly.
"I don't know, Ry. I've already invested a lot in business administration." She shrugged, looking down.
"Bullshit. You don't want that."
"I don't." She shook her head. "I was only doing it because mother wanted me to. Because her Emma wants to study that but unfortunately doesn't have the brain to."
"So, you help her write exams or something?" I chuckled, joking obviously. When she doesn't laugh, mine died down. "Fuck."
"Yeahh. Not anymore though. Not this finals." Finality was evident in her tone.
"Apply for an art scholarship program. Pass this last semester and watch your dream happen."
"I'll think about it." She smiled at me. "Thank you once again, Ryder."
"Don't do that, Kinky." I turned off my engine when I got to the spot.
"Where's this?"
"There's someone I'd like you to meet, Uriel."