This is book 2 in the "Beautiful Destruction" series. You MUST READ "Theirs to Claim" first in order to understand this one.
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When I was ten, my father told me that all of my dreams would one day come true. Naively, I believed him.
I may have gr...
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Chapter 35 : Madelyn Friday, December 24rd, 2022
The time I had initially planned to spend here has long passed by now.
None of us really acknowledged it as I slowly began moving my stuff into my room; books, clothes, more personal items like my favourite blankets and hoodies.
Hailey had even been over a few times helping me set up and harrasing me repeatedly for details about the night Caleb had fucked me. I had almost forgotten that this was what life was supposed to feel like. Content... happy.
They were helping me heal.
At the same time, though, things were a lot different than the ways they were before. As time passed, it grew more and more apparent Xavier had grown into his title of a Don, Alec and him always away on trips and assignments while I made sure Caleb was letting his body heal.
He was too damn stubborn to relax and enjoy a few weeks off, but it was kind of nice knowing he was getting some time to himself.
It was Alec and Xavier I needed to work on next.
With the mystery of how the shooter was even able to get into the house along with why he bore the emblem of the Resistance, they've barely even slept.
None of us have.
I can't see why my father would've ever sent someone to kill Caleb, however that in itself left an even scarier truth, one that opened the doors to a heap of new possibilities.
Someone in his organization went rogue.
There were thousands of people I never met over the year I'd lived there, however they all would've met me. From speeches to word of mouth, everybody was aware of the anomaly of Marcus's only and oldest daughter.
"Mads?" Caleb's voice travelled past from the other side of my closed door, suddenly making me aware of his previous light knocking that got lost in my thoughts.
"Come in." I give a low shout as I mark the page in my book, laying on my stomach in bed in the Christmas sweater Jolene and Hailey crocheted for me as an early present. Apparently Jo has been teaching her in exchange for picking up a few shifts at the Horizon on their busy days.
Tilting my head to the side, I watch as Caleb opens the door, noticing once again how much better he's gotten since that horrific night.
He still needs some support from the wall sometimes, but he was overall better. In more ways than one.
Smiling as he came to sit by my side, I felt his hand run slowly up and down my back, a stray strand of hair from my messy bun falling across my forehead.
With a temperature drop and a whole lot of snow, we've been relaxing inside for most of the day, trying to stay warm while I keep these three idiots alive and reluctantly festive.
I'll admit, it was kinda cute to wake up one morning to find them setting up a Christmas tree in the living room together. Apparently that was the one tradition they've always stuck to considering they all grew up with staff to do it for them.
I smacked Xavier so hard when he tried to tickle me as I was hanging ornaments high up on the tree that I'm pretty sure he still has a faint imprint of my hand on his bicep.
Makes me smile just thinking of it.
"We need your... what did you call it again?" Caleb said with a lopsided grin, his hand pausing just above my ass. "Ah, your festivity in the kitchen please." This dick is mocking me.
"My festivity is what keeps things interesting in this house. Without me you wouldn't know the joys of watching 'Die Hard' or Michael Bublé's 'It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.' I swear!" I end with a dramatic scoff, playfully shoving him away from me.
"Hey, you'd be proud. You didn't even ask why I'm here by the way." He says as he plucks the book straight from my hands, not giving me a chance to take it back before he was up and off the bed.
Holding it up high in the air like an absolute child, I sit up with a sigh, knowing I was going to give in no matter how hard I protested otherwise.
"Okay, fine. What is it that you need my spirit so desperately for?" I cave, Caleb acting as though those few seconds had wasted so much of his time.
"Well... you see... I bought Alec a personalized apron a few years ago and he said the day he'd wear it is the day I agreed to bake something with him again."
In other words: When pigs fly.
"So I figured since I took a bullet for you and all, you owe me enough to endure my suffering by baking by my side." I'm shot a smug grin while all I can do is laugh.
"Why do I feel like you skipped over the personalized part too quickly?"
His following look is all I needed to know.
"It may or may not say Daddy's Little Chef in bold white lettering across the front."
I shoot him a blank stare.
Caleb mirrors me.
The deafening silence between us says more than enough, followed by my outburst of giggles at the thought of Alec being Xavier's (aka. Daddy's) little sous-chef in the kitchen.
"You didn't." I gasp through my cackles, realizing this is the hardest I've laughed in months.
"Oh I did, and if you don't save me with your presence, Alec might actually skin me this time."
"Well how can I deny an offer as great as this?" I muse with a shake of my head before flicking him away with my hand. "Now shoo, give me my book and I'll be down after this chapter."
Even after he left, though, I couldn't read a single sentence. I was too busy grinning like a goddamned idiot.
- End of Chapter 35 -
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