Ditched Cheating Alpha, I Led My Daughter to Life's Peak novel Chapter 170

I turn to him, giving him my full attention. "Yeah?"

He stares into my eyes. "I... Earlier...." He's about to say something, but the words die off his mouth. He shakes his head.

My heart drops. I pull my knees closer to my chest. I keep saying today's been a rollercoaster. Well, here's the worst part. The part when the ride is already over and you're just waiting to be freed from the bars. All the highs are gone. The loops. The curves. The fun parts. You're either left with the rush of the adrenaline... or the need to rush to a trash can. Right now, it's the latter.

"Which did you choose?" he asks.

I raise an eyebrow. "What?"

"With Krys?" he clarifies. "Which mask did you..." Realization dawns on his face. "Oh..." He leans further against the wall. "You didn't do a mask either. Just like you didn't watch the movie."

I shake my head. "No, I did. I chose the water one. See." I point to my face. It better look extremely moisturized like the girl in the picture. My relationship is at stake.

He nods, to my relief. "Well," he keeps going. "I usually choose the brightening citrus, but that's just me."

I laugh a little. What? "You do facial masks?"

He nods without any hesitation. "Krys doesn't exactly give us a choice when it comes to it, but..." He looks back at me, smirking. "I won't pass up an opportunity to pamper myself. Lord knows I need it with this pack."

I laugh again. He chuckles, but then his face falls. The laughter dies off. The silence takes over-again. I want to try to save the good vibes, but I don't know how.

"Well..." He rubs his hands down his face before standing up. "I really went all out today with Bri and the guys, so I'm gonna go to bed."

I don't mention the fact that I don't see a drop of sweat on him.

"You can go hang out with her and Krys... Or Aiden and Axel. Whatever you want." He quite literally walks away. That's it. He just leaves.

I furrow my brow. "Carson?" Hello?

"Yeah." He doesn't stop.

"I thought we could hang out, actually."

He shakes his head. "I have training to do later. I really need to go to sleep."

My feet start trailing after him. "Are you mad at me?"

"No."

I pick up the pace. "Well... Well I don't even know where Brittany and Krys are. So could you show me?"

"They're in Krys' room," he says over his shoulder. "You know where that is, right?"

I give him a flat look. "Okay, that's not fair."

He doesn't say anything else.

I follow him all the way back to the brothers' room. On the way, we pass the pink room where Krys is currently giving Brittany pigtail braids. Brittany gives me desperate look, 'Help me.'

I point towards Carson and she cringes. I give her the same expression and she gives me a look that could only be read as, 'You're on your own.'

"I would be."

Omg. "I'm coming in," I say, leaving the door open.

"Feel free to. It's not like you're a guest here." He gestures towards Axel's bed.

I snatch the pillow away from him. "Stop it."

"No." He grabs another pillow and puts it over his head.

I sigh, exasperatedly. I just can't win. "Why can't you just stop being jealous of your brothers?" I ask the universe more than him. I just want this all to work out, but the second I've worked things out with one brother-or screwed things up worse in Aiden's case-I have to deal with the next.

I hold the pillow in my arms against my chest and sit down beside him. "I know that you probably feel like-"

"I'm not jealous of my brothers."

"What?" I double take. "You're not?"

He shakes his head.

"... Okay," I eye him suspiciously. "Well then what is it?"

He rests on his side so that he's facing me. He stares into my eyes with the most serious expression ever. "I now know that my jealousy is a defense mechanism designed to hide our relationship problems." He slams the pillow down in front of him. "It's not a result of my brothers. It's a result of us failing romantically."