Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“You know what it means,” I say. “Don’t pretend you don’t know you hurt me.”
He sucks in a breath and straightens his back, posturing. “Well, I did what I did because I had to. Do you think I had any other choice, strapped to that chair?”
“Well …” I don’t even know how to answer because I know the things a person is pushed to do when faced with death. I tried to sell out my father just to get out.
Doesn’t that make me just as much of an awful person as he is?
“Exactly.” My father steps forward, closer toward Beast. “You’re still my daughter, even when you don’t want to be. And this is my house, my hideout, whether either of you likes it or not,” he says. “The only one Lex didn’t find, apparently. No thanks to you, of course.”
“Papa, stop,” I tell him as he approaches Beast. “Please.”
“No, all of this happened because he came to our house.” He points at Beast like he’s the unwanted one. “Because he tried to murder us.” He’s full-on raging now, and Beast is just sitting there, oozing in rage. I can tell he’s holding himself back, physically restraining himself against the couch, nails digging into the fabric as though they’re claws meant to restrain him.
“I could’ve given you the money. It was right there in the warehouse, waiting for your fucking owner. You could’ve taken it back to him, and we could’ve lived our life in peace,” my father rants. “Instead, you chose to make our lives a living hell.”
Beast’s fingers push into the couch so hard they almost break as he stands up, towering over my father with a kind of fury that could wake a sleeping volcano.
“What choice!?” Beast yells out loud. He tilts his head and shows my father the scar on his neck. “He implanted a fucking torture device. This is how he kept me on a ball and chain.”
“I don’t see anything—”
“Because your daughter cut it out of me!”
“Gross,” my father mutters.
Beast steps forward. “You want me to make you feel how gross I can get?!”
I swallow away the lump in my throat. “PLEASE!”
My voice makes them both stop.
“Papa, please, believe him. Lex literally electrocuted him. I saw it myself several times. It hurt him so much that it forced him to obey.”
My father turns up his nose. “Still … pain shouldn’t be the only measure to make a decision.”
“You were willing to sacrifice her to save your own life,” Beast growls back, pointing at me.
“That’s what comes with the world we live in, the business I do,” my father says. “You have no clue what kind of pressure I’m under to maintain—”
“I KNOW!” Beast growls, his voice heavier than I’ve ever heard before. “I know you.”
My father frowns. “Well, I don’t know you, yet you keep involving yourself in our business. You’re free now. Why don’t you just run away and leave us be?”
“Because she saved me,” Beast says, fishing the flower from his pocket to show it to my father. “She gave this to me …” He narrows his eyes at my father. “The night you killed my parents.”
My father’s pupils dilate, and he takes a step back. “What …?” He looks at me, searching for answers, but I don’t even know what to say. “When?”
Beast’s face darkens. “I was the boy who escaped.”
My father’s face slowly loses all its color as he begins to realize the magnitude of his actions. Of everything that led us to this moment, this place.
“It’s you … you’re the reason behind all of my misery.”
CHAPTER 17
Aurora
My. Misery.
Not a single second did he think of me.
My fingers clench around the candleholder so harshly that it almost snaps in two.
Suddenly, my father runs to the kitchen and takes out a huge butcher’s knife. Beast runs toward me, but my father pokes it between us.
“Stay away!” he snaps, lashing out at Beast.
Beast jumps sideways and narrowly avoids every strike, but my father keeps slashing away wildly. My father almost manages to cut the flower, but Beast keeps it at arm’s length like it’s the most precious thing he’s guarding. Neither of them relents.
“Stop!” I yell, but they both ignore me.
Beast grabs my father’s wrist mid-swing and knocks the knife from his hand, but he keeps twisting it until he begins to shriek in pain. “Ow, ow, ow!”
“Stop it!” I yell, trying to separate them, but I can’t get through.
“Let me go, you beast!” my father growls, punching at him with every bit of strength he has left. But none of them seem to faze Beast even the slightest as he grabs the knife and holds it over my father’s throat.
“Beg,” Beast says through gritted teeth.
“Please, Beast, Papa … stop,” I beg, my eyes growing even more teary. “Enough is enough. You are both family.”