Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
I nod. “Yes, Papa. I apologize.”
“Save it. I know you’ll do it again.”
I avert my eyes and play with my hair to ease the tension. “I just want to know what it’s like.”
“What what’s like?”
“To run a business like yours,” I reply.
He snorts and then begins to laugh so loudly my face turns red. “You think you still have a shot? After what happened the last time I involved you in my business?”
I wish I could hide, but there is no hiding from the ridicule of my father.
What happened all those years ago still haunts me.
Yet all he sees is a mistake.
“Oh, you innocent little girl.” He turns and throws the napkin onto a table in the hallway. “For someone with such a way with words, you really don’t understand much about this world, do you?”
My lips part, but I don’t know how to react.
Suddenly, the housekeeper steps inside the hallway and stares at us.
My father clears his throat. “Never mind.”
“Sir, your guests have arrived,” the housekeeper says.
“Where are they?”
“I told them to wait in the foyer.”
“Offer them a drink while I clean this up.” My father rubs his hands and gazes up at me. “Get ready.”
I nod. “Yes, Papa.”
I quickly close the door again, but my heart is still going a million miles an hour. Even though I’ve seen him use violence so many times, I never get used to it. Not in my heart nor the many gruesome pictures floating through my mind.
Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want me to watch.
Past, age 7
“I told you not to cross me!” My father’s voice booms through the living room as the door to the apartment smashes open.
BANG!
My eyes close from the loud noise, but they instantly pop open the second I hear a piercing howl.
My father’s personal bodyguard shields me while my father’s men step inside the apartment and hover over the man crawling across the carpet in a desperate attempt to get away.
BANG!
His movements stop. All that’s left is blood pooling below his belly.
And I stare without making a sound.
Just as my father told me to do.
Watch and learn.
Maybe then you’ll be useful someday.
So I force myself to watch as they pick up the man and empty his pockets until they find his phone and toss it to my father. “Let’s see what that fucker’s been up to.”
The sound of whimpers coming from across the room draws my attention … along with that of the men.
I suck in another breath.
They line up, guns at the ready, slowly stepping over the man’s body to get closer to the bedroom door in the back.
My father presses his finger to his lips, signaling me to keep quiet.
My legs begin to tremble.
The door slams open.
A woman steps forward with a gun in her hand, roaring out loud with tears staining her eyes.
BANG!
A shriek cuts off in my own throat at the sound of her body hitting the floor.
She didn’t even have time to shoot.
And I knew from the moment they heard her that she’d be dead within seconds.
Even though I’ve never seen her. Even though my father has never seen her.
All it takes is a single mistake by a family member, and everyone is done in my father’s eyes. And the man lying in a pool of his own blood, his hands reaching for the very same door the woman just burst out of, paid with his life.
His family.
Blood for blood.
I swallow as the men swarm around the woman to check her pulse and sift through her things. It’s all so surreal to me. I can barely stomach it, and once the adrenaline wears off, my stomach starts to flip over.
I run out of the guard’s safe arms and head for the toilet, throwing my head inside as I empty the contents of my stomach.
The men in the other room haven’t even noticed I’m gone, and I doubt they care. They’re far too busy searching the apartment for evidence and stolen money. Not even my father seems to have taken notice of my absence as he cusses while rummaging about the apartment, kicking furniture to rid himself of his unkempt rage.
I sigh and flush the toilet, rinsing my mouth in the sink before tapping the towel against my lips. The very same towel that must’ve touched those people’s faces mere hours ago.
I drop it and stare at the girl in the mirror, with her shoulder-length black hair and almond-shaped eyes, feeling like she aged years today.
Another wave of nausea overcomes me.
Until I spot two glinting eyes in the corner of the mirror staring straight back at me.
My heart stops.
Fingers clenched around the sink, I hold my breath, wondering if I’m hallucinating.
Until he blinks.
The second I move away, he does too, hiding behind the curtain rail of the bathtub. My gaze shoots to the door, checking to see if anyone’s watching before I make a move.