Vicious Minds: Part 3 (Children of Vice 6)

“Good timing, I was looking to make my escape,” he said, pulling out the chair for me.

“Aren’t you going to stay for Ethan’s speech?” I asked him.

“I wish could,” Wyatt said, walking over his brother and placing his hand on his shoulder. “But I am needed at the hospital.”

“Thank God for your healing hands, brother,” Ethan said dully, as we moved to take our seats.

“Excuse me, everyone,” he said to them, shaking hands with the mayor and kissing the hand of his wife, making her giggle.

“Flirt,” she said.

“Never with married women, maybe another life.” He laughed. “Have a beautiful night, everyone.”

“It must be hard for him, juggling family life and his work as a doctor at such a famous hospital,” Fatimah said beside me.

Ethan huffed so gently beside me that I wasn’t sure they noticed, but I did.

“Yes, we are all so very lucky to have a doctor in the family,” I replied, watching as he weaved through the tables toward the door. Wyatt leaving as I arrived, left me unsettled, though. I had a feeling, a gut feeling that something was off. It wasn’t poison. They weren’t going to try that again for a while, or at least I wasn’t going to be blindsided again with it. There was just this nagging feeling, like wondering if I had left the stove on in the house.

I glanced over to Ethan, leaning in to whisper. “Did you tell him to come, or did he come on his own?”

“I told him to. Why?” he asked.

I frowned, shaking my head. “I’m not sure.”

“When you are sure, let me know,” he replied. “In the meantime, did you tell your grandfather to come, or did he come on his own?”

I followed his gaze to my grandfather, who spoke to some man I did not know on the other side of the ballroom.

“He came on his own,” I answered.

“Good news or bad news?”

“It depends on who you are, I guess.”

“And now we welcome, business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and son of the former, Governor, Melody Callahan, a man who continues his mother’s work as part of the backbone of this great city and our beloved state, Mr. Ethan Callahan.”

I rose from my chair alongside him, as did everyo

ne else as we gave him the applause he deserved. He kissed my cheek before going up to the stage.

Wanting Gigi to see, I lifted my phone and took a picture. Ethan would call it ridiculous, but still, I rarely took pictures of him; besides, the cameras would capture me as well.

“You both are very cute,” Fatimah said.

“Or childish,” I teased, putting the phone back down as he prepared to speak; however, when I did, I paused, looking at the phone in my hand, then remembering the phone I saw Wyatt put in his pocket. They were exactly the same as all Callahan phones. However, he’d dropped his phone two days ago and cracked the bottom edge of the screen.

Had he fixed it? Had he been given a new one.

Smiling, I discretely texted Dino. “Was Wyatt given a new phone to replace his cracked one?”

Immediately he replied, “Yes, he got a new one yesterday.”

It seemed like I was getting paranoid.

I put down my phone to focus on what Ethan was saying, but for some reason, I couldn’t. I had a bad feeling.

I hated it when I had a bad feeling.