Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 119597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 478(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 478(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
National news? Why? Because I married America’s favorite billionaire playboy, Monty Novak?
My stomach sinks. “Got it.”
Before we left Hoss, I advised Leo and Kody to keep their mouths shut and refuse to answer questions about themselves or anything else until we have an attorney present. Not knowing where we would land or how it would unfold, they agreed that we would wait until we could evaluate the situation together.
The door closes behind the last nurse, sealing us in with a charged silence.
Across the room, Kody grips Leo in an unbreakable embrace, whispering at his ear.
This must be the first time they’ve seen each other since the crash. Even from this distance, I feel the complex emotions of their reunion and survival thrumming in the air around them.
Their injuries appear miraculously superficial, a small mercy in the wake of such a violent crash. I’m desperate to see their charts, to understand exactly what they’re dealing with. But at first glance, it looks like their heads, faces, and necks received heavy lacerations. Probably from broken glass and trees.
A shiver travels down my spine, the reality of what we survived chilling me anew.
Kody’s limp implies a break or sprain. They’re both wearing the pants they put on this morning. I imagine them grabbing those on their way out of their rooms to find me.
Leo’s beard appears to be gone beneath the bandages. His head is wrapped, too. It’ll break my heart if his hair was removed.
They should both be in their beds, but I’m so fucking grateful they found me. We can’t be separated, especially not now as they adjust to their new life.
As they pull apart and start toward me, Kody’s gaze lands on Monty, who stares at him with a look of recognition, or perhaps confusion, shining in his eyes.
Leo’s expression mirrors his brother’s as they both fixate on Monty with an intensity that makes me uneasy.
“What?” I tense.
“Wolf.” Kody rubs at the bandage on his breastbone. “He looks like Wolf.”
A vise tightens around my chest, making it hard to breathe.
Monty stiffens. “What did you say?”
“Do you know that name?” I ask.
“It was…” Monty straightens, tugging at the cuffs of his shirt. “That was my nickname when I was a kid.”
My thoughts scatter, and I share a look with Leo and Kody.
Wolfson.
Wolf’s son.
“Do you know Gretchen Stolz?” I manage to choke out.
Monty’s reaction is immediate, his face draining of color. “How do you know that name?”
Oh, God. He knows Wolf’s mother.
How did I not see it before? Maybe because the similarities weren’t there. I mean, the same eye color, yes. But Wolf’s hair was shaggy and messy, framing a gaunt face that looked nothing like the Monty I knew.
The Monty who stares at me now, however…
This resemblance is new.
Monty has changed. He’s lost so much weight it thinned out his face and narrowed his entire frame, altering his appearance into Wolf’s likeness.
He no longer looks polished and rigid. He has this whole beaten-down, strung-out, emo vibe that wasn’t there before. His jaw is scruffy. His eyes are haunted, dark with torment and shadows. He looks so sad. So broken.
Like Wolf.
Tears blur my vision, the implication cleaving my gut like Gretchen’s knife.
Monty is Wolf’s father?
He didn’t want kids. He didn’t want our child. But he had a child with that raping bitch, Gretchen?
The questions crash over me, each one more painful than the last.
“Helena Weiss?” Leo growls his mother’s name. “Do you know her?”
“No.” Creases appear on Monty’s bleeding face.
Kody limps forward, watching him closely. “Kaya Knowles.”
Monty staggers backward as if physically struck. “How?” His expression collapses with startling pain. “How do you know her?” His eyes dart between us, landing on Kody with a dawning comprehension.
“Kaya was my mother,” Kody says coldly.
“No…” Monty collapses in a nearby chair. “Was?”
“She died when I was two.”
Monty knew Kaya, possibly even loved her, given the horror limning his features.
Does that mean he fathered Kody, too?
So many connections forged in blood and shrouded in secrets, and Monty’s at the center of it. I don’t know which way is up or what truth to believe.
Everything spins around me, hitting me in waves of dizziness and making me wobble on the bed. But Leo and Kody are there, wrapping me up in their strong, safe arms.
The steel frame of my bed groans as Kody climbs in with me, adjusting my legs to rest over his lap.
Leo stands beside us, arms crossed and knuckles bleeding.
We all need medical attention.
“Where is Denver?” Monty lifts his head, his eyes burning as he takes in the three of us.
Leo and Kody stiffen.
“We’ll answer your questions.” I close my eyes and focus through the reeling bouts of vertigo. “But I have some demands first.”
“I’m listening.”
“I want to see their medical charts.”
“You can’t even open your eyes, Frankie. You need rest.”
I turn my neck, squinting at him. “I want their medical charts. And I will not be separated from Leo and Kody again. If we’re staying the night here—”