Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 130414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
“Where is this coming from? You used to be so sweet.” Daddy’s hat slipped from his fingers, feathering to the floor. “What happened to you?”
“What happens to every girl who escapes Chapel Falls.” A sad smile hovered at my mouth. “I grew up and realized there is life beyond the ivy-laced walls of Chapel Falls. That in this life, women are allowed to make mistakes, to be human, to experience life as fully and as wholly as men, without paying a horrible price.”
“You knew what would happen if you got caught with a man before marriage. I didn’t make the rules. Society did.”
“Two thousand years ago. Most of American society doesn’t live like us anymore.”
“You’ve been mad at me since before you moved to Maryland.”
Somehow, he looked smaller. Older. Far less powerful than I remembered. Time apart had extinguished that supreme glow that once radiated from him. The one every girl saw from her daddy before reality scrubbed it raw.
“Yes.” I rinsed my hands, wiping them on a rag, along with every illusion regarding my father’s concern for me. “I realized, after you gave me to Romeo, that I’d never chosen Madison, either. At the time, I agreed to avoid upsetting you. You’ve never given me a voice. How ironic that I found mine, anyway, and in the gilded cage you sent me to, no less.”
Daddy observed our surroundings. The beauty. The lavishness. The wealth. “I thought he’d be good to you. Costa’s reputation is unimpeachable. Is it really so bad here?”
No. Not at all.
But it wasn’t my choice, either.
Just as I readied to give him a piece of my mind, swift footsteps echoed down the corridor. The pace. The quiet confidence. It could only be my husband. Two things happened at once. First, my heart somersaulted, eager to see him again, though only three hours had passed since he’d feasted on me for breakfast. Second, my nerves—already strained so taut I feared they’d snap my skin like rubber bands—jumped to attention.
Romeo strode in, larger and more forbidding than my father. Than the kitchen. Than his mansion. How had I not noticed it before? That my husband—dressed to the nines with his too-sharp jaw and ashen eyes—was a weapon of war himself.
He shouldered past my father, caught my expression, and swung his glare on Shep Townsend. A chill zigzagged between us.
“Have you an invitation to be here?”
Ego puffed up Daddy’s chest. Earlier, wrinkles had pleated his forehead, betraying his frustration with me. At Romeo’s words, they ironed out. Shepherd Townsend refused to be schooled by a man half his age. “I don’t need an invitation. My daughter—”
“Is my wife, my responsibility, and therefore my business. She currently does not want to speak to you. Unless I’m mistaken?” Romeo swiveled to me, raising a brow. I didn’t need to shake my head. He read my eyes. He read me. He turned back to my father. “Leave.”
“Dallas …” My father—no longer Daddy to me, I realized—wrung his suit in his hands, attempting eye contact. “Are you really going to treat your own dad this way?”
Guilt burrowed through my chest, past my ribs, and into my heart. I ignored it, folding my arms.
He tossed his hands up as Vernon materialized behind him, guiding him away by the elbow. “You told Momma you were happy.”
“I told Momma a lot of things so her heart wouldn’t break.” I swallowed. “Your heart, however, deserves to crumble to dust.”
“Allow me to make it easier for you, Shep.” Romeo planted a hand on my father’s shoulder. I was surprised the latter didn’t sink all the way through the floor and disappear between its cracks. “If I catch you here one more time, uninvited and unwelcome, I will cut your legs off to ensure your mistakes do not become a habit. Do not underestimate my mean streak. After all, I did ruin your firstborn’s reputation, engagement, and life, all within the span of one evening. I am terribly proficient where cruelty is concerned. It’s an inherited talent. Making me an enemy is not for the faint of heart.”
The steel calmness that settled into my shoulders at the sight of my father’s forced removal should have rattled me. I didn’t recognize myself. Yet, I knew I would never return to the old me. No matter what happened.
Georgia would always own my soul, but I suspected my heart lived here. In Potomac. Dangerous hope bubbled inside me. Maybe my pregnancy wouldn’t tarnish Romeo’s immaculate existence. What if I could convince him that giving someone else life was worth more than ruining his father’s?
My eyes clung to Romeo, who braced the back of an upholstered stool, glaring at me with a mixture of tenderness and aversion. In the rare times he showed me kindness, he despised himself for it.
He scowled, misreading my longing stare as an accusing one. “I thought you wanted to get rid of him.”