Suit (The Twin Duo #1)(56)

“What does that mean, Paxton?”

“Come in here. I want to show you something.”

Paxton took my hand and I followed, feeling so overwhelmed. So lost, and broken.





Chapter Twelve


Paxton unlocked his office door and I looked around. Nope. Nothing. Not one thing felt familiar.

“Sit,” he ordered.

I sat in Paxton’s leather chair and he reached around me. Every room in the house came alive. I had been on camera ever since I’d met him.

“Look at the difference in you. This footage was taken the day before your accident.”

I watched with outrage, shock, and confusion. One second I felt raped, and the next puzzled. It was me. I was in the kitchen, dressed, hair done, makeup on, and breakfast on the table. The microwave said six-thirty, and I could tell by the brewing coffee and the darkness behind the doors that it was morning.

Paxton walked in, carrying work boots. After setting them to the floor, he strolled over and kissed me. A pang of anger shot through my chest when I watched him hold my jaw and say something. Something out of anger.

“I can’t hear it,” I said. I wanted to hear it. I wanted to know a typical day. The life of Gabriella Pierce—pre-accident.

“You don’t need to hear it. That’s not my point. Just watch,” Paxton said. His arm went over me again and he sped up the feed and turned up the volume. “Listen how you talk to the girls here,” he said as the video moved ahead to breakfast with Rowan and Ophelia.”

“Rowan, sit up straight. Eat your breakfast,” I said from the island.

A fight broke out from nowhere. Ophelia used her napkin and she screamed. The look on my face was always the same. It never changed. Not from happy to sad, or angry to scared. Nothing. I was emotionless.

My expression never even changed when Paxton entered the kitchen. He settled the fight in a split second. Both girls sat up and ate.

“Can you do anything to help out around here?” Paxton said through the speakers, lips on mine.

I turned to look at him over my shoulder. “How could I do anything when you didn’t even give me time?”

“That’s what I’m talking about, Gabriella. Look.” Paxton switched to another folder. A couple of days ago. I remembered that day. Both girls were sitting on the bar stools, eating apple slices. Ophelia took a slice from Rowans plate and licked it. Rowan did the same to hers, but Ophelia screamed a shrill, extremely long, ear-piercing scream.

Unlike the last time where I wore the same blank stare, I cocked my hip and looked at her like she’d lost her mind. Paxton stormed around the corner, but his face, too, changed. His expression shifted from anger to bewilderment.

I placed two fingers between my lips and whistled louder than her scream. She stopped. Total shock on her face.

“What are you screaming about?” I questioned while my elbows slid across the smoky gray marble for eye contact.

“Her licked my apple,” she whined.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. No whining. I can’t understand you when you do that.”

“Why did you lick her apple, Row-row?”

“Ophelia did it first.”

I held my eyes in contact with Ophelia’s and she looked down. “Look at me, Phi. Don’t look down when someone’s talking to you. You look them straight in the eyes. You’re bigger than that. Now. Did you lick Rowan’s apple first?”

“She did,” Rowan tattled.

“Shh, hang on.” I wagged one finger in the air.

“Yes,” Ophelia confessed.

“Which one?”

Rowan pointed to the apple her sister left her germs on. “This one.”

“Pick it up, Phi,” I requested with a nod toward the contaminated apple. Ophelia picked it up and placed it on her plate. “Which one did Rowan lick?” Ophelia pointed to the slice and Rowan picked it up.

“There. No more germs. You good? You good?” I asked with a straight finger from one to the other. They both nodded with smiles. “Good deal. Fist-bump,” I ordered. My little Clydes giggled and bumped tiny fists. “Hey, I need some bumps, too,” I teased, and all was good.

I walked past Paxton, bumping his shoulder as I passed. “Damn. Your offspring’s are drama queens, dude.”

My hand covered my mouth when I watched Paxton’s expression. I’d just knocked the wind right out of him.

“Who the fuck is that, Gabriella? You whistled at them like you were calling a cab. I didn’t even know you could do that. Fist-bump? What the fuck is that? Who the fuck is this? You don’t act like that.”

The next video was me waking the girls. No biggie. No dilemmas. I gently woke them from their sleep and stood in the bathroom while they brushed their teeth. We talked. I explained to them their schedule while I brushed out their hair. Ophelia whined about swimming lessons, and Rowan assured me she could already swim.

“What?” I didn’t see anything wrong with that.

“This was the other day.”

I turned back to the screen and watched, remembering it with a smile. Ophelia was in bed with Rowan when I went to wake them for stupid art by the bay. I picked up a pig wearing a Florida State jersey and eased my sore body to the floor. With just my arm the pig woke the girls in a deep, cartoony voice.