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)
“You know why. April doesn’t have anyone to pick her up. She wasn’t sent here by her family,” I reply. “And she didn’t belong here either.”
“I don’t care!” He’s never been this upset with me, and I understand. “Do you have any idea how dangerous all of this is?” Tobias barks at me, but I’m numb, even to his words. “Our whole House could be destroyed, thanks to you!”
“The sinners will not betray us. They know how powerful we are and how far our reach goes,” I say, standing my ground.
Still, I can’t help but stare woefully at the large wooden door, the front entrance to our house, realizing I will probably never see her again.
“Why would you do this?” Tobias asks, slamming his fist into the wall. “You let this happen. You were supposed to choose a woman and make her a wife, but you fell for the only one you couldn’t have. For what? Was she worth it all? She got out! Again!”
I turn around and face him. “Like you wouldn’t do the same thing.”
We stare off for a moment, the tension like lightning striking our hearts, splitting us in half.
Men, driven by rules but fueled by wishes they know they shouldn’t grant.
“I would never,” Tobias replies.
“Maybe I should ask Anna, see how she feels.” When I turn around, he blocks me in my path by slamming his hand into the wooden door, closing it.
“Stop.”
I turn to meet his gaze. “I am not the only one who’s been lying to myself.”
His face darkens. “Yeah, well, I’m not the one who decided to destroy this place.”
“I’m not,” I reply. “They won’t talk. They’ve been instructed not to, and they know the consequences if they do.”
“Oh, and that’s supposed to make this safe?” he scoffs. “They weren’t done with atoning for their sins.”
“I decide when they’re done, and they were done. As was she,” I say. “And you know what? I am too.”
He frowns as I walk to the table and pick up the book that has tormented me for so long. I hold it out to him. “It’s yours now.”
“Wait, what?” His eyes widen. “You can’t …”
“I can. And I will.”
I try to hand the book to him, but he won’t take it. “No, I refuse.”
“Oh, c’mon. You know you’ve wanted my job from the very first day we started.”
When I shove the book against his chest, he clutches my hand along with it.
“Eli. You know what that means. When you quit …”
I stare into his eyes and nod. “I know.”
He swallows. “As your advisor, I can’t let you do this.” His voice is bold and unwavering. “You know why. I can’t let you make the same mistake my father allowed yours to make!”
Our eyes connect again, this time not in rage but in anguish because he knows exactly what I’m about to do. What it costs for me to push everything aside. What it means for me to atone for my gravest sin.
Ten years ago
With my hands covered in mud and blood, I waltz back into the house with my head held high. The guards step aside for me. No one dares to say a word.
Not because they have never seen blood before because they have, plenty of times.
But because I went outside with my father and came back without him.
Fearlessly, I saunter into the living room and slouch down on the couch, not giving a shit that I’m covering all the fabric in filth. I don’t care who sees or who knows.
What are they going to do?
A bulky man with an equally burly beard comes barging in. Lucas, my father’s advisor. The man who was supposed to have his back.
He comes to a halt in the middle of the room and stares me down. I stare back, unwavering.
“What did you do?” he growls.
“I buried him.” And there isn’t a single tear I will shed for him.
His stance grows firmer, as though his feet have been planted into the very wood lining the floors. “Why?”
I lean over and grab the book lying on the table right in front of me. I throw it at him, the book falling open right where my father’s blood marks the page.
I point at it. “There. That right there.”
He gazes down at it only briefly before looking right back at me.
It’s the marriage vow he made to my mother.
He would love and cherish her until his dying breath.
“He broke his vow,” I growl, glaring up at him because he knows what this means. “You were supposed to make him keep his promise. To keep him accountable.”
Lucas looks at me, his nostrils flaring.
“You knew what he did, and you never once tried to punish him,” I say. “When you knew the rules by heart.”
Still, he says nothing.
“Well, I did your job,” I scoff.
“Are you proud?” he asks.