Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
I swallow and try to remember a time when I interacted with those two men. I don’t remember exactly, but I know their faces. I know that I’ve seen them before. I know my father had something to do with them. If I recall, they have been to our house before, but I just can’t remember anything else. Maybe because back then, I didn’t know I had anything to be scared of.
“Why did you kill my whole family, Cohen?” I ask him, staring at his face, wanting to know the answers for a final time.
“Because that day, the day I came into your house, your father had organized someone to come and collect you. He was going to sell you, to make sure there was never a way you’d be able to access what he’d left to you. Not only that, but if you weren’t around, there was never any leverage. He had it all figured out, he was going to make you disappear and with everything in your name, he had all the power he needed.”
I shake my head, not believing what’s coming out of his mouth.
My father would never have sold me.
He might not have wanted me around, but selling me ...
Not to mention, if everything was in my name, then why would he get rid of me? If I was the only one who could access it, why would he make me disappear?
“If I was the only person who had control of all this, why would he want me gone? Then he wouldn’t be able to access any of it.”
“Aviana,” Cohen growls, his voice low. “He was going to declare you dead after five years and had it set up so it would all transfer back to him. He only needed you to have it for a small period of time. I don’t know why, but it was part of his plan. Sell you, after five years of nobody being able to find you, then you’re able to be legally declared dead. Once that happened, he would get it all back, and continue with whatever plan he had in place.”
No.
This can’t be real.
It can’t.
“How do you know all of this?” I whisper, shaking my head. “How, Cohen?”
“I got wind of it, and so I started diggin’. That one time I was at your place with you, when you were havin’ all those boy troubles, I bugged the place. I found out enough and from there I was able to figure out his plan. I got hold of your brother and threatened the rest out of him. Once I knew for sure what they were plannin’, I knew I had to stop them. The only fuckin’ way to do that, was to take them out.”
“So you used me, and then killed them?”
“No,” he barks. “No, I did not fuckin’ use you. I didn’t know what was happenin’ until long after we were friends. I was protectin’ you, if they had stayed alive, any one of them, you’d be dead right now, or worse ...”
“You mean I’d be someone’s slave, just like you sent me to be?”
“I never fuckin’ intended for you to get hurt, I thought they’d give you a new identification and you could live your life in another place. I never, fuckin’ ever, wanted you in the hands of a monster. That was not my plan.”
My anger swirls around in my chest, yet funnily enough, I believe him. Even though I’m fighting against myself, I don’t think Cohen ever intentionally hurt me. He wouldn’t have wanted me to have a bad life, he thought he was doing the right thing. Yet still, it burns. It hurts so god damned badly when I think about what he did.
“Why did you kill all of them?” I ask, my voice tight.
“Because they were all in on it. They had a fuckin’ buyer and everything, you were goin’ to get sent away and nobody would have ever seen you again. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“I just don’t understand, Cohen. If it was as simple as taking my family out, why did you send me away?”
“It wasn’t until the day I went to take out your family, that I learned other people knew about your father’s plan. Those two men knew and they were going to take you before he could sell you, then they were going to force you into marriage so they could have you sign it all over to them. It’s fuckin’ genius, really. After it belonged to them, you’d be dead and that would be the end of it.”
I shake my head, struggling to process any of this.
It’s almost unbelievable, like it has been made up for a story.
Like it couldn’t possibly be real.
“I had to get you out of there, because no matter what way I looked at it, you were going to end up in trouble. If I just killed your father and brothers, those men would have found you. It all happened so fuckin’ fast, and I never planned on you endin’ up where you did. I was goin’ to hunt down those men, and then bring you back, but I couldn’t get hold of them ...”