~Avery~
In a matter of minutes, I had managed to convince my mother that King and I had mended fences—well, sort of. Her sceptical expression suggested she wasn’t fully buying it, but hey, it was worth a shot. I couldn’t let King cause a scene in front of the kids or unleash his Hulk-like temper. He was already simmering like a forgotten kettle, and I figured it was best to keep my own fury under wraps, at least until he was thinking with more than just his fists. I fibbed to Mum and Jane, saying the kids and I needed to spend just a week at King’s place. Fingers crossed, a week was enough time to get him to trade in his tantrums for some semblance of reason, right? Jane, ever the detective, insisted I tell her if King was forcing me into anything. But I couldn’t risk him going on a rampa
