SLY LITTLE FOX
1297 Words
Chapter two: Sly little fox
When Stephen walked into the living room, it felt almost as if a dark cloud had descended upon the house and everything was subject to it.
The door sealed shut behind him, and June squared her shoulders, determined not to show even a hint of weakness though her heart thumped consistently, betraying her.
It felt like the first time they had met. And with a frigid tone and a hint of something deeper, Stephen remarked,
"June, you've been keeping secrets from me."
June felt a chill as he glanced around, looking as though he had a legitimate reason to be there.
"I don't care why you're here. I don't care what force compelled you, and I don't care how you found me, but I want you out of my house. I'll leave the state. I'll leave the country with my son if that's what you want, and you'll never have to see us again. All I ask is the same thing.”
His face softened and relaxed for what looked like seconds while he stared into her eyes. He didn't want to believe she didn't want to see him, and he knew part of her did as well.
“ Adam's in danger.” He said, as softly as a whisper could go without being called a word.
All the bells in England couldn't have rung as loud as the ones in June's head did when he said what he said.
She knew this day would come; eventually. She knew one day he would find them, one day, the Knight family would come for her, that one day, she would run out of places to hide, and so she sank quietly into the sofa and buried her head in her hands in defeat.
She didn't know exactly who the enemy was yet, but she felt like she couldn't win whoever it may be. She was too tired.
Seeing her cry softened him. He had come to the resolution that he wouldn't reignite the feelings he had for her.
If he did, it would be hard for him to leave again, and that was the best thing he could do for them both.
He couldn't stay with them; he couldn't be with her. He knew this. But seeing her; seeing her broke down every fence he had built on his way to her house. And that was when he accepted that the feelings never went away. He buried them, but they never died and never decayed.
He stood there, and she cried for what seemed like minutes.
“Who?” She asked when she was done.
“The Smiths.” He responded.
With her eyelashes wet and her eyes red, she had a puzzled look when she said:
“The Smiths?”
The knight's family friends, the people who got her her job at Houston University? The only nice rich people she had ever met in her life?
“What do you mean the Smiths want Adam dead? They've been nice to me ever since I dropped out of Eckemoff. They got me a job there when I finished my master's. What are you talking about?”
“It's a long story, June, and I don't exactly think this is the right time for long stories…”
“ You don't get to decide. You don't get to come in here and just tell me to follow your lead because you know what you're doing. You either tell me everything right now or you leave us alone. You can just expect me to take your word for it and think they want to kill my son.”
"You can't just walk in here and act like you're the good guy." She spat
“And you can't sit here pretending like you're a saint and didn't take the million dollars my parents offered you to get rid of the baby.” said Stephen losing his temper.
June felt like she had just been slapped with a baseball bat right across her face.
Is that what they told him? Or is that what he told himself?
“ Get out!” she said
“ This isn't about us! June, it's about Adam, and he's in…”
“Get out! I will protect my son. I will keep him, feed him, love him, and provide for him like I've been doing for nine years now. I don't need you.”
" Mom?"
June felt her heart thump, her breath caught in her throat and a lump forming in her chest. She turned swiftly as if someone had punched her with that one word. She saw Adam standing on the stairs with his wide, curious, and bewildered eyes. He was the spitting image of Stephen.
"Go to your room, panda," June ordered sharply, almost imploringly. The air was heavy with anxiety. As though he were witnessing a ghost, his eyes softened as he turned to see his son for the first time.
"Adam," he uttered softly, the name flowing from his lips as if he had been practicing how he would say it, and how it would taste on his lips. Adam, in turn, smiled at him and was probably about to ask the strange visitor if he was the man he saw on TV not too long ago.
All three of them stood for what felt like minutes before Stephen walked to the door and said authoritatively:
“ I will be back.”
Once Stephen had departed, June locked the door twice but not before checking if he had left, and then she leaned her head on the door breathing raggedly.
Adam was in danger. Stephen was back. The Smiths wanted her son dead?
To her, it all sounded like crazy talk. But why?
Guessing she needed some alone time, Adam quietly went to his room without saying anything. And not a minute too soon, the quiet was abruptly disrupted when her phone buzzed and ‘unknown number’ was displayed in front of the screen.
As she answered, her voice barely rose above a whisper, her heart skipping a beat. “ Hello?”
“ You just couldn't keep the secret a little while longer, could you, Juney? You really thought we'd never find out. You Sly little fox.”
Thomas.
He gave a throaty chuckle and sucked his teeth. His voice was cool and smooth, slicing through the air and sending waves of dread coursing through her.
“ Thomas” wasn't a question; it was a confirmation; she knew.
“ It's been a decade luv.”
“ What do you want, Thomas?”
“ Glad you asked Juney love. What I want isn't so hard.”
“ You see, daddy's dead, and a lot of people want some of what he left behind; but me hun, I want your son; I want the next heir to the Knight fortune. And if you knew me at all, you would know that I always get what I want. No matter the cost. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far you run, and no matter how well you think you can hide. You always did think you were good at playing hide and seek. ”
Her words tasted harsh as she lied, "I'm not afraid of you Thomas. I'm not afraid of you, and you're not going to get an inch closer to my son, I swear it. " But she was afraid.
"You wanna bet?”
Almost immediately, June heard a car reeve across the street, and when she ran to the window to check if all her nightmares were happening all at once, she saw the black
car that had been tailing her for the past few days drive away with the initials “THMS KNIGHT.”
- Writer
