The Heart System

Chapter 499: Chapter 499

There was no way I could tell her that the moment she stepped out of the car, I was heading straight back to her mother to answer that text in person. That photo had lit a fire in my gut that was impossible to ignore. I wanted to be inside that apartment five minutes ago, but I couldn’t risk the overlap. I needed Ivy far away before I visited the woman currently carrying my child.

Outside, the rain had slowed slightly, though the sky remained a bruised, heavy purple. We rushed to the car, the damp air chilling my skin. I unlocked the doors and we slid inside, the heavy thunk of the doors sealing us into the dry, climate-controlled interior. Ivy leaned back, patting her shoulders to brush away the raindrops.

”Fucking weather...”

”Yeah,” I said, twisting the key. ”Disgusting.”

I eased the car onto the main road, glancing up and to the left. I hoped for a split second to see Delilah’s silhouette in that window, but the glass was just a dark reflection of the clouds, though the lights inside were still burning bright. I shifted gears, my mind already racing through the next hour.

”Evan,” she began, her voice small. ”Was there really a file called ’Ivy’ on that laptop?”

The question caught me off-guard. I kept my eyes fixed on the road, the sweep of the windshield wipers the only sound for a long moment. Finally, I just slowly nodded. She shook her head and pressed a palm against her forehead, muttering something low and bitter that I couldn’t catch.

I stopped at a red light and cranked the AC. The silence was thick and awkward. What was there to say? Her boyfriend was a psychopath who drove people to suicide, and her mother was pregnant by the guy currently driving her to the mall.

”I wish things would’ve been different,” she said.

”Hmm?”

”Things with Chase. My mother. I don’t know...”

”Yeah...” I nodded, reaching for words that didn’t exist.

”I thought... Chase was the one, you know?” she asked, looking out the side window. ”Like... a handsome guy. Good job. So kind. I thought he loved me. I thought this was it.”

”I’m sorry, Ivy,” I said. ”I really am. I’m just glad you’re safe.”

The light turned green and I moved the car forward, but the heavy rain had created a crawl of traffic. The wipers were working overtime, batting away the deluge as we crept toward the mall. It was going to take thirty minutes to cover a ten-minute distance.

”Evan.” She suddenly reached out, placing her hand over mine on the steering wheel. ”Thank you for... well, always being with me.”

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WOMEN - INTERACTIONS

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Jasmine: Interest: 40 / 60 ★★

Kayla: Interest: 38 / 40 ★

Tessa: Interest: 40 / 60 ★★

Kim: Interest: 100 / 100 ★★★★★

Delilah: Interest: 75 / 80 ★★★

Cora: Interest: 100 / 100 ★★★★★

Mendy: Interest: 20 / 40 ★

Nala: Interest: 100 / 100 ★★★★★

Penelope: Interest: 5 / 20

Minne: Interest: 38 / 40 ★

Ivy: Interest: 40 / 60 ★★

Eleanor: Interest: 25 / 40 ★

Amelia: Interest: 12 / 20

Esme: Interest: 60 / 80 ★★

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Huh. I was now 40/60 with her? Damn, that was nice. That meant another reward... which was... not bad. Not good either. Just a small amount of EXP. I’d take that.

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Evan Marlowe [Level 19]

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Age: 21

Height: 180 cm

Weight: 76 kg

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EXP: 5202 / 14504

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”Come on now,” I said, sliding my hand out from under hers and jokingly nudging her shoulder. ”You know me. Evan Marlowe, always the nice guy. asterisk tipping my fedora asterisk.”

She burst out laughing, the tension in her face finally breaking. ”Did you really just say ’asterisk’ out loud?”

”I did,” I said, grinning. ”Why? Was it not classy enough?”

”You are so cringe with those old man jokes,” she said, shaking her head as the laughter lingered. ”They’re literally on the level of dad jokes.”

Dad jokes? I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, a smirk tugging at the corner of my mouth.

Oh, Ivy, if only you knew how literal that was.

⟁ ⟁ ⟁

I knocked on the door, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. The adrenaline was surging through my veins like a live wire. I’d just watched Ivy disappear into the sliding glass doors of the shopping mall, and the second her coat was out of sight, I’d pulled a U-turn that probably would’ve cost me my license. Guilt was there, a nagging little weight in the back of my mind, but it was drowned out by the sheer need to see the woman who had sent that photo.

A few seconds later, the door clicked and swung inward. Delilah stood there, and for a moment, I actually forgot how to breathe.

She was wearing a sheer, charcoal-grey lace bodysuit that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. The lace was thin, delicate, and completely see-through, framing the dark circles of her nipples and the soft curve of her pregnant belly. Over it, she had draped a thigh-high silk robe that hung open, held together by nothing but a prayer. She looked like a goddess of domestic sin, her hair slightly tousled as if she’d been waiting for me in that velvet chair the entire time.

I didn’t say a word. I stepped inside, kicked the door shut with my heel, and crashed my lips against hers. It wasn’t a gentle kiss; it was a collision. Delilah let out a muffled moan, her arms winding around my neck as she jumped, locking her legs firmly behind my waist. I caught her by the thighs, pinning her back against the foyer wall with enough force to make the framed pictures rattle.

”That photo,” I said against her mouth, my voice sounding like broken glass. ”Do you have any idea what that did to me? I almost crashed the car with your daughter sitting right next to me.”

Delilah let out a throaty, triumphant chuckle, her head leaning back against the wallpaper. Her hand slid down between our bodies, her fingers finding the rigid, straining length of my cock through my denim. She squeezed, her nails digging in just enough to make me hiss.

”I think I have a few ideas,” she whispered, her eyes dark with a predatory heat.

”I dropped Ivy at the mall,” I said, my breath hot against the sensitive skin of her neck. ”I’m going to fuck you until the second she calls me to pick her up. Every minute she’s gone belongs to me.”

”Good,” she breathed, her grip tightening on me. ”I hope you’ve recovered from that ’night’ with the other girls, Evan. Because I’m going to tire you out today. I don’t share well, even if I have to pretend I do.”