Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61082 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61082 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
“If you say so.”
We drive for over an hour, stop to get some food, then drive for another hour. Abigail doesn’t speak again, nor does Lucas until we get closer to our destination. I know we’re almost there when she turns to glance out the window and a small smile flashes on her lips.
“You should ask her why she killed your father,” I tell her. Lord knows why I’m helping her.
“I don’t need to know why. I walked in after she did it. The relief on her face of what she had just done will haunt me forever. I was a mess, and she was smiling.”
“Women don’t kill for no reason,” Lucas adds, surprising me that he’s somewhat defending Adora. “She would have had a reason.”
“Women kill all the time,” Abigail bites back. “She was probably jealous because father loved me more.”
“Tell them you’re here to see your sister,” Lucas orders, sitting back, so they see her when Abigail winds down the window to the guards.
“They’ll see you,” she says, an unimpressed expression.
“Tell them we’re your guards.”
“On one condition.”
“What?” Lucas asks, and that makes her smile. But it's wicked.
“That I get to kill her.”
“Done,” Lucas answers, and I know he’s lying, but she doesn’t need to know that.
THREE
ADORA
Small hands grab my legs, and I smile at their feel.
“Why do you look sad?” Eyes the exact same color as mine stare up at me. My father’s genes are strong. “Aren’t you happy to be back?”
I reach down and lift him into my arms. How can something so perfect belong to me? I missed so much and tried to tell myself it was for the right reasons. But now I know I can’t. I know I could never leave him again. No matter what. Two years without him was harder than I could have ever imagined.
The price we pay for love.
“I’m not sad. I’m so, so happy. What do you want to do today?” I ask him as Scott walks in. His eyes find mine, then he glances at our son and then to my finger, where he made sure I put his ring back on. It wasn’t a request.
He won’t let me sleep in the same bed as him. He knows I like to cut people’s throats when they sleep like I did to my father.
I wouldn’t trust me either.
I would do it again if I knew I could get away with it like I did last time.
That night, when Scott showed up, I received a text, went outside, and there he was waiting for me.
“Told you I would find you.” He did, and I always thought he would. But I figured if I stayed in plain sight, both men who wanted me wouldn’t find me. How wrong I was.
And I had also hoped Scott wouldn’t be stupid enough to go against the Rossi’s. That’s like signing your own death warrant, which I did when I left Joey for Scott.
“You look beautiful.”
I hate him.
Loathe him.
I don’t answer.
I know I look beautiful. It’s because he requests I wear what’s in my closet and nothing else. I place Jerome on my lap and pick up his headphones and position them on his ears before I press play on what he’s watching.
“Do you plan to speak?”
“I hate you,” I tell him, voicing the most prominent thought cycling through my mind right at this moment.
“You don’t have to love me for me to fuck you, Adora. You know this.”
“I’m sure you didn’t go without while I was gone,” I reply.
The nanny walks in and smiles as she reaches for my son.
“No, the help knows how to suck cock.”
The nanny’s eyes go wide as she looks at me, not in shock at what he said but… with guilt.
“You’re fired,” I tell her simply. She stands up straight, eyes wide, and looks back to Scott, who shrugs before he stalks off.
“Miss, I—” she begins to plead, but I cut her off.
“Get out. You’ll never touch my son again.” She slinks off, and Jerome has no idea what is going on.
I sit with him for an hour and play before it becomes dark, reveling in his presence and resenting how much I’ve missed. Once it gets closer to bedtime, I bathe and tuck him in, pressing a kiss to his head. I’m just about to leave him for the night when he asks if I’ll read him a story. And that question has my heart feeling just the slightest bit of relief.
Despite my hate for Scott, I know he does love his son.
He just sucks with women.
“Dinner’s ready. Come to the table, Adora.”
“I ate when Jerome did.”
“You did not. Now move it.”
I kiss Jerome’s head once more and leave his room. Some nights I sleep in there with him for the comfort of knowing he is all right.
He’s sitting at the head, and two of his closest men sit on either side of him. He nods for me to take the seat at the other end of the table.