Descent (Black Heart Romance presents Heaven & Hell)

fuck himself.”
So, that answers that.
___
When the car pulls up outside of Calvin’s family home, it’s a much different sight than when we
went home to mine.
His home is immaculate, there’s no other word for it. It’s a sprawling brick mansion gently
accented with ivy, with black shuttered windows and a driveway so large, it’s more of a road.
There’s an elaborate hedge maze out front with a fountain rising up out of the center.
Hollis enters the driveway and drives up toward the house. I look right, at the maze and the wellmanicured
grounds that seem to go on forever. I look left, at the picture perfect mansion that somehow
keeps the warmth of a home despite its grandeur.
“This place is amazing,” I say, looking around as I step out of the limo.
Calvin steps out and looks around, too, but he looks decidedly less impressed. His hand comes
to rest lightly on my waist. “I’m glad you like it.”
He offers his hand and I take it, feeling a little out of my depths.
His parents don’t greet us at the door like my mom did. Calvin opens the door and gestures for
me to go in ahead of him.
The house opens up and greets us with cream-colored walls and a staircase to the right. Beside it
there’s an archway leading to another room, and a cozy little bench with cream-colored cushions. A
bright, regal receiving room flooded with sunshine form the enormous windows waits ahead of us,
but there are no people in it.
Calvin takes my hand to lead me through it. Once we’re past the accent table in the center of the
room, I realize what I thought were windows are actually doors. Calvin pushes them open and we
step out onto a gray stone terrace that wraps around the back of the house. It’s a well kept area that
seems to be for entertaining. We pass an elaborate grilling area and a dining table with an umbrella
over it. Past that there’s a rectangular fire pit—not an actual fire pit you’d throw logs on, the kind
where the flames dance above a bed of smooth stones.
Calvin’s parents are seated on the couch back here waiting for us. While they haven’t noticed
them yet, I take a quick look.
His mom is a slender woman in a butter yellow dress. Her leg is crossed over her knee, very
ladylike, and she wears a white heel that appears to be from the 1950s. She’s wearing sunglasses and
a sun hat and sipping lemonade as she smiles at the man across from her.
I would have known he was Calvin’s father even if he hadn’t told me. He could be a handsome