Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 178117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 712(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 178117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 712(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
But my phone’s dead, and I can’t bring myself to leave to go charge it up somewhere.
CRACK!
The sound of twigs breaking puts me on edge.
I swiftly turn to see what it is.
Two, no, three guys emerge from trees that cover the area in the dark of the night.
“Penelope …” Dylan’s voice fluctuates in tone.
I stand, unabashed and unafraid, and fish out my knife. “You lied to me.”
Felix just stands there, staring at me with that same arrogant and stoic look on his face like he doesn’t give a care in the world, and it hurts. It fucking hurts.
“You told me she was a friend,” I growl.
“That wasn’t a lie,” Felix says.
“You fucked her!” I scream.
My voice is unhinged, just as my heart, but I don’t care who hears.
These fuckers destroyed me. Used me. Played with me.
And for what?
Just so I could find the one who bullied Eve to death.
Yet the more I look at them, the more I realize they may have been lying to me all this time to cover up their tracks.
“Did you bully her into selling her body?” I ask. “Is that what it is?”
Alistair shakes his head, but I don’t believe him.
“Stop lying to me!” I yell. “You’re the reason she died!”
“No,” Felix barks sternly.
And I hate the way he looks at me, so full of contempt like he hates what I’m saying.
But he knows as well as I do what they’re capable of.
He just can’t look at the man in the mirror.
And I hate how he continues to lie, even now.
Felix pulls those other two with him and makes them do what he wants. He was the start of all my misery … of my sister’s downfall.
So I point my knife right at him as I go straight for the heart. But the second the tip of my knife hits Felix’s chest, I pause. My hand begins to shake.
He’s not stopping me.
His arms are still in his pocket, even when confronted with a blade.
Like he’s accepting death with open arms.
And I can’t fucking push myself to puncture his skin, no matter how badly I want to.
“Did you enjoy seeing me get hurt? Is that why you seduced me too? Just to torture me like you tortured her?” I ask, my voice breaking as much as my spirit. My face contorts as the tears begin to stream down my face. “You killed her.”
“No,” Felix reiterates.
“Yes! Stop lying!” I yell right up in his face. “She jumped because of what you guys did to her. The same thing you did to me! What did she ask you to do, huh? Did you try to help her too? Find some fake enemies to hurt?”
“No,” he says again like it comes easy to him. “But I wish we would have.”
I grimace. “I should cut out your fucking heart. She deserved better than you.”
“She did,” Alistair chimes in. “She did deserve better than us.”
“No one chooses who they fall in love with,” Dylan adds, stepping closer.
“Don’t get close, or I’ll fucking do it!” I yell, pushing the blade farther into Felix’s chest.
“Do it then,” he says, locking eyes with me alone. “Kill me.”
His hand snakes around mine, pushing the knife farther and farther into his chest.
“So you admit you hurt her,” I say through gritted teeth.
“I admit …” he mutters, eyes stone-cold. Deadly. “We loved her.”
My pupils dilate. “What?” I shake my head. “No.”
When his lips part again, I break even more than I thought I could. “And she loved us too.”
I shudder in place as my hand tremors. “No …”
“It’s true,” Dylan says. “We all loved her.”
“To the point of obsession,” Alistair adds. “Something I never truly understood until I met you.”
“No, you’re all lying,” I say, slowly stepping back as they all back up Felix. “She was a good girl.”
“Like you?” Felix quips.
“That’s different. I’m trying to get revenge,” I quip.
“And she was trying to find acceptance in the way she was,” Dylan rebukes, smirking. “A spicy little pepper just like you.”
“Bullshit,” I spit.
“I wish it was. With us together,” Alistair says, rubbing the back of his neck, “it felt like we had something special.”
“But it was taken from us as much as it was taken from you,” Felix says, his sanpaku eyes even more chilling now that I know the truth.
“Don’t you dare,” I grit. “You didn’t even come to her fucking funeral.”
“Oh no?” Felix tilts his head. “I remember locking eyes with you.”
“You didn’t come to say goodbye. You weren’t at the service!”
“Because my father told us not to,” Dylan says. “To avoid anyone thinking we had any relations.”
I frown and glare at him. “Your father knew?”
Dylan rubs his lips together, sucking up the raindrops. “He found us naked in a classroom.”
“If everyone knew we were a thing, people would blame us for her death,” Alistair says, throwing his curly, wet hair back.