Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 39740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 199(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 199(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
But she’s pretty much up for anything short of breaking the law, though I’m not too sure about that either. She has a strong sense of justice and a bit of the vigilante in her.
That’s why I think she was made for me, which is about the craziest thing when you think about it. Sometimes, I wonder about the odds of the two of us meeting the way we did after years of being in close proximity and never knowing the other exists.
It’s almost as if fate meant for us to be together, not only in love but joined forces against the same enemy. I realize, though, when it’s all said and done, that I’m not a nice person. I might’ve been once, but that died a long time ago.
I’ve lived with vengeance for so long that it has become a part of me without me realizing it. Lily is the only softness left in my life. And yet, no one around me knows. My parents haven’t noticed. They have no idea of the tiger they’ve been raising right under their noses. A tiger that’s about to strike and strike hard.
I sometimes scare myself with how coldly calculating I’d become and have had to warn myself a time or two not to cross the line into outright evil.
My only hope is that Lily doesn’t think I went too far when the curtain goes down on the final act.
LILY
Sun Tzu was right; it pays to know your enemy. I knew that once Janice saw that ring on my finger it’ll blind her to reason. After the ring thing, I made sure to call Dad every day for the next couple of days, always around dinner time and spent more time talking to him at the office than I have in the last five years combined.
He didn’t seem to notice anything wrong, and I’m sure he thought that the past was forgotten now that I was getting married. How he could think that when I still refuse to introduce him to my fiancé is anyone’s guess.
I have him eating out of my hand and longing for the scraps from my table just as I’d done as a young child who’d been abandoned by her father. I guess he’s forgotten his part in all that as time went by.
In his mind, he’d like to blame Janice for all of it, but I have a very long memory, and the only reason I’ve taken it easy on him all these years is because he’s my grandparents’ son.
Every once in a while, Grayson would ask me if I was sure I wanted to be a part of what he was doing or if I was sure I didn’t mind that he was going after my father and it’s all I could do to hide my ferocious glee at the thought of him being taken down.
Honestly, I think he’s being too easy on them, but he’s a kind soul. Me, not so much. You see, the difference between Grayson and I is that he found out what my father and Lacey were really like when he was a teen.
I had a whole lifetime to learn that lesson, so I have way more grievances against those two, and they were never able to pull the wool over my eyes the way they did with him for so many years. He’s still a bit disillusioned, I think, and who can blame him after what his own parents had put him through?
Anyway, I knew that once the seeds were planted, Janice wouldn’t be able to help herself. It’s true that my grandparents were gone for the weekend, but what I didn’t tell Dad is that I’d convinced them to add new security cameras around the property.
For the longest time, Grandpa had resisted because their property was so well protected by high walls and a gate that they didn’t need what he calls new fandangle nonsense. He, for some reason, believed that people could spy on him through the cameras, but I’d worn him down and then warned him not to tell anyone that he was having them installed for safety reasons.
I think he suspected that I was up to something, and that’s why he gave in, but I’m not too sure. Mom keeps asking why I’m being sneaky, and I tell her that I’m not, but I certainly am.
Poor Grayson, he can’t wait for the wedding day to get here, and I’m busy enjoying the leadup. In fact, I have somewhere I need to be in about half an hour. Today was Lacey’s day with her girls.
She usually meets them at this little bistro in town that’s all the rage and has a waiting list a mile long. She always reserves the best table so she can be on full display. I reserved that table after she did and had her moved elsewhere, so when she shows up, that will be her first surprise.