The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism novel Chapter 114

Chapter 114: 114 | Close the Door

Lukas’s gaze sharpened at the phrase, his attention focusing with laser intensity on the interaction playing out in front of him. He’d called her that this morning, right before she’d lost her mind completely and begged him to keep going, to never stop, to give her everything she’d been wanting for years without knowing how to ask for it.

Mom reached out and tucked a strand of pink hair behind Sloane’s ear with surprising gentleness, her fingers warm against Sloane’s skin. The gesture was familiar from childhood but carried different weight now, loaded with implications that made Sloane’s chest tight. "You’re allowed to be nervous. You’re allowed to change your mind. But if you want to do this, then you need to trust that I’m not trying to take him away from you."

"You already did take him away from me for two weeks." The words came out sharper than intended, edged with pain that had been building since she’d walked into the kitchen and found them together.

"I know. And I’m sorry for that." Mom’s voice carried genuine regret, the professional composure finally cracking enough to let real emotion show through. "But that’s exactly why we need to do this differently going forward. No more secrets. No more competing. Just honest communication about what we all want and need."

Sloane’s throat felt tight, constricted by emotions she couldn’t quite name or organize. "What if what I want is for you to back off completely?"

"Then I will." Mom didn’t hesitate, the response coming immediately and without qualification. "But I don’t think that’s actually what you want."

"How would you know what I want?" The question carried less heat than Sloane intended, sounding more curious than accusatory.

"Because you’re my daughter, sugar. I’ve known you since the day you were born. And I can see the way you’re looking at him right now even while you’re talking to me."

Sloane couldn’t help it. Her eyes slid sideways to where Lukas sat watching them both with an expression that looked somewhere between aroused and terrified, his usual composure completely abandoned in favor of naked attention. His hands gripped his knees hard enough to make his knuckles go white, and she could see the tension running through his shoulders and down his spine.

"He wants this," Mom said quietly, her voice pitched low enough that the words felt intimate despite everything else happening. "And so do I. And I think you do too, even if you’re not ready to admit it yet."

"I don’t want to share him." The words came out rougher than Sloane intended, carrying the weight of years of possessiveness she’d never been able to articulate properly. "I want him to be mine. Just mine."

"I know." Mom’s hand moved to cup Sloane’s cheek, her palm warm and steady against skin that felt flushed and oversensitive. "But he’s not just yours anymore. He hasn’t been for two weeks. So now you get to decide whether you’d rather lose him completely or find a way to make this work."

The logic was airtight and manipulative as hell, but Sloane couldn’t find any flaws in the reasoning that would hold up under scrutiny. The choice really was that simple, stripped of all the emotional complexity and reduced to basic mathematics: share him or lose him entirely.

Sloane’s gaze drifted back to Lukas, taking in the way he looked like he wanted to say something but couldn’t figure out what words would actually help. His jaw worked like he was chewing on sentences and spitting them out before they reached his mouth, cycling through responses that all felt inadequate to the moment.

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