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“I’m happy for you. Both of you,” he said.

I smiled at him and stepped up into the ambulance. Happiness. It was odd to feel anything but anger after Selena had been hurt and terrorized by Nick, the man I planned to dedicate my life to ruining. Well, his life and his shithead brother’s. And yet, sliding into the ambulance beside her, taking her hand in mine and seeing her smile up at me, I couldn’t deny the peace I felt settle over me. So, that’s what that contented feeling in my bones was.

Happiness. Who’d have thought?

When we got to the hospital, I was shocked to see a familiar face waiting for us in the foyer.

“Selena!” Marjory ran toward her daughter, still strapped onto a stretcher, and gently grabbed her arm.

“What happened? How do you feel?” she asked in a rush.

I caught her up as quickly as I could, without going into detail about Officer Preston. That could all come later.

Marjory clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle her sob, but it didn’t quite work.

“Mom, I’m okay, seriously.” Selena’s voice was tired.

I was immediately annoyed at her mother for making her daughter comfort her when my sweetheart was the one hurting.

We moved through the hospital, and Marjory kept pace. A nurse bustled up to me.

“Mr. Sinclair? We’ve got a room set aside for Ms. Carmichael in the executive suite. Mr. Anderson called ahead.”

“Good, let’s go.” That was one point to Beckett, I supposed. In fact, the Ice Gods had really come through today for Selena. My respect for them rose. Those who treated Selena Carmichael well were the kind of people I could get along with.

Too bad her mother wasn’t making the slightest effort.

“I’ve texted Winter, she’s coming to the hospital,” I told Selena.

“She doesn’t need friends here; she just needs me. Cancel it,” Marjory snapped at me. She was clearly too distraught to remember that she was supposed to be attempting to win over her new stepson.

“No, it’s okay. I want to see her,” Selena said quickly.

I nodded. I wouldn’t be letting Marjory dictate anything.

“And see her you will,” I told her, still holding her hand.

We got to the doorway of the private suite, and Marjory reached out to touch my arm. I subtly sidestepped her unwanted “motherly” gesture.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You don’t need to stay, Brody. I’m sure you have other places to be.”

I let go of Selena’s hand so the nurses could take her inside and turned to her mother.

“No. I don’t, actually. There is nowhere I need to be more than here,” I corrected her. “And I have been here the whole time you weren’t. When she was new back in town. When she was trying to find her feet. When she was dealing with some asshole harassing her. I have been here… unlike you.”

Marjory flushed. “Your father needed to travel for work?—”

“And you needed to travel to shop?” I bit back.

“And how do you know that’s what I was doing while I was traveling? Do you just assume all women are useless except for shopping? That’s an ugly, misogynistic?—”

“So, you weren’t shopping? You were working, too?” I cut in. I could hardly tell her that I knew what she’d been up to because I’d been having her followed.

Marjory opened her mouth to continue her tirade, but I managed to get in before her.

“What work was it? Are you training to become a mechanic?”

The words left me before I could call them back.Shit.Well fucking done, Brody. I was losing control over myself by the second, and the reason for it was lying in the room in front of me. Meeting Selena had rattled my self-imposed solitude, routine, and control. Falling in love with her had remade my world. I wasn’t the same person I used to be. I never would be again.