Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45194 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45194 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
I want to remind her of what she left behind.
She gasps when the trees fall away, and the main building comes into view. I pull up in front and stop. She's out of the car almost immediately, the skirt falling to cover her back up.
The front door opens, revealing Lyle and Nate. They must've seen us from the windows.
"Honor," they say together, frowning similarly in confusion; it's like they're twins. Once they've seen their fill of her, they shift their attention to me with raised eyebrows and quizzical expressions. You'd think I just set fire to the car and declared myself king or some other kind of crazy bullshit.
"Her car broke down," is all the explanation I give. "Are you clowns going to hold the door like gentlemen, or what?"
Honor cuts me a look. "I never thought you'd sound so much like Dick-Ass when you grew up.”
For once, I don't even know what to fucking say. Me? Like Dick-Ass?
As my eyes follow the sway of her ass up the stairs, I catalog all the ways I'm like my father, and at least in my mind, that list is ridiculously fucking short. I'm nothing like him, and I'm never going to be anything like him. A child-beating, foul-mouthed, narcissistic, empty-hearted, controlling asshole.
And she just fucking compared me to him.
He married into this family. I was born to it. When one of us leaves, I'm going to make sure it's him.
"I can't believe I'm standing here." Honor's neck is craned, looking up at the eighteenth-century chandelier over the foyer. She always liked it, the glinting in the crystals. Victoria had decorated it for Christmas. I'd forgotten about that. I don't know if it should please or bother me that having Honor here is bringing back those memories. At least those are some of the good ones.
"It's weird for me too. Almost like the old days." Nate smiles. He's so goddamn gullible. Like this is about nostalgia and nothing to do with the fat paycheck she's expecting.
"Can I see the gardens? It's been so long." She's already walking towards the back of the house, with Nate and Lyle following like they're her lapdogs. Still, I follow too, so what does that make me?
The happy gasp when she throws open the French doors to the back terrace sounds more genuine than I'd like to admit. It’s just hedges and a pond and shit. Maybe she's starting to lure me in as well.
"They look just like they used to. And the birdhouse! It's still there! You kept it."
"Through no fault of Dad's, that's for sure," says Lyle with a cruel laugh. "He wanted to bulldoze the whole thing. It's a good thing Ky stood up to him."
At Lyle's words, she spins to look at me wide-eyed, with those full lips just open enough to get my imagination going.
Fuck.
Suddenly, it's hard to meet her eyes directly. "I did it to spite him. Don't get any ideas. When you and Victoria ran away, it was a blow to his ego. I just made sure to keep the reminder around to dig the knife a little deeper. It was worth throwing money at the landscapers just to piss him off."
She puts her hands to her hips and glares up at me. "I was a freaking kid. We all were. Are you really blaming me?"
"All I'm saying is that if you think I sound like Dick-Ass, then maybe consider that I might not be the only apple that didn't fall far from the tree. Once you have your money, you’re going to fuck right off, just like Victoria did. We have a business arrangement. Don't imagine this is anything more."
"Do you honestly think I'm just milking your wallets for the sake of nostalgia? I'm not the one who went out to buy a virgin on the internet. How was I supposed to know it would be you guys? Like, what was my plan, exactly?" Nate holds up a hand, but she pushes past him, her eyes glinting with anger.
"It wasn't your plan, obviously, but you're taking full advantage of it now. Maybe you have Nate and Lyle wrapped around your finger, but I'm not falling for it." My voice is tight with tension, and it takes every little ounce of my willpower to keep it low. Honor left. Victoria left. They didn't see our lonely nights. How Dad stepped up his abuse because he was so fucking angry. How I had to get between him and my brothers, again and again. How everything had turned to shit. And now she expects us to trust her? To believe she's here for real? There's always someone peddling bullshit, but I'm not buying. "I don't trust you, and I never will."
She draws a sharp breath, her pretty eyes narrowing and her nostrils flaring. I expect her to scream at me, but instead, she turns to Nate and, in a tightly controlled tone, says, "I'm done here. Can you please take me home?"