Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
I can’t stay here. I have to get out.
It isn’t safe.
Eli is going to look for me here. And if I know anything about him, it’s that he won’t give up the search. No, this is no place to stay for me.
So I get up and leave the apartment. Only one other place to go.
Eli
The helicopter's whirling blades normally set my heart at ease, but right now, it does the opposite. All I can think about is Amelia and how scared she must be all by herself. Especially after what she’s been through. Soren told me about what that guard tried to do to her after lying to me about her being in his hut.
The mere thought of what he could have done to her sets fire to my already blazing heart. If I would’ve been there, I probably would’ve ripped his balls off and shoved them down his throat.
No one, absolutely no one gets to touch my Angel.
I’m glad Soren made him pay the price for his insolence.
I need to be more careful about who I hire. Double-check everyone’s credentials and pay them triple for the effort to stay on the righteous path. They all know what they sign up for, and they should do their job as asked.
Grumbling to myself, I look out the window as I’m flown to my destination. I’m on my own now, but I will get her back. It’s better this way with fewer distractions. Soren and Tobias need to stay behind anyway and look after the girls so they don’t rebel. Although I’m not even sure anymore if that won’t happen regardless of whether they’re there, seeing as Amelia’s escape happened right underneath our noses.
I can’t let it happen again. I must bring her back and make her mine … forever.
She will become my wife, and together, we will make sure the sinners are punished … and my line will be continued.
A man and a woman, side by side, ruling over my family’s House.
As it should have been.
Sixteen years ago
“I’m done. Do you hear me? Done!”
My mother’s voice echoes down the hallways. I can hear her from all the way here in my room. I don’t need to see her to know that tears are running down her cheeks right this very moment.
And I don’t need to be there to know what’s going on.
“Daria, please,” my father says.
“No. Let go of me!” she shrieks.
I look around to see if the guards are watching before rushing out of my room and across the hallway to where my father and mother are having a heated discussion in the living room.
She’s standing over the balcony while he is right behind her, trying in vain to grasp ahold of her.
“Don’t come near me, or I’ll do it,” she hisses at him, her back against the banister.
“Don’t even try,” my father growls.
“I can’t take it anymore!” she screams, leaning dangerously over the edge.
Then her eyes meet mine, and she pauses.
My father tries to grab her arm. “Stop this nonsense right now.”
“No,” she barks back, focusing on my father again and swatting him away. “I don’t care what you do anymore. I’ve tried to make sense of it, to see your ways, but I can’t. You never stop hurting people. You’re the one who needs punishment, not them.”
It’s not the first time I’ve heard her scream. But it’s the first time she’s actually done it in front of me.
“This is what we do here. You’ve known that for a long time,” he says.
“But I never agreed!” she shrieks. “And you never even tried to see it from my perspective.”
“It has to be done,” he says, his posture rigid and unmoving, as though he’s already given up.
“Then you can do it on your own. I’m done playing your games. I’m done trying to wait for the day that will never come,” she says, and she hoists herself up the balcony’s railing.
My eyes widen, and I gasp in shock.
My father steps forward. “Daria, stop this nonsense right now. We have a son together.”
“I don’t care!” she yells into the void. “You tricked me into this.”
I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt me, just like all the other times she’s said it before.
“You knew what you were getting yourself into,” he says, grasping her ankle. “There is no scrambling out of your choice.”
She glances at him over her shoulder. “This was never my choice. It was yours,” she hisses, then she glances at me. “Even having him.”
Tears well up in my eyes. I wish I didn’t care like she does, but I do. I wish I could unhear what she’s saying, unsee the things she’s doing, but it’s impossible.
My father turns sideways, his eyes catching mine. And it feels, if only for a moment, as though I’m on fire.
“I don’t love you. I never have.” Her lips curl up as mine curl down. I don’t know if she’s speaking to my father … or to me. “You use him to keep me here. To force me to stay. But I am done living this lie. I’d rather not live at all,” she says. And as the tears stream down her face, she attempts the jump.