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)
“The rules are the rules,” I reply stoically. “And I must pay for my sins.”
“Fuck the rules!” she hisses, making me laugh. “They exist only to punish people.”
“You know why I must be punished,” I say, my hand briefly caressing her hair. “I hurt people. It’s my very livelihood. And I hurt you … so much.”
“You think you do, but you don’t,” she says, and she gazes up at me with those same big round eyes as before, giving me the one look that could tear a soul apart. “You hurt me, yes. But you let me go. And you let all of the sinners go too, because I asked you to, and you never even asked me to forgive you.”
An inkling of a laugh comes out of my mouth. “Mary told you, didn’t she?”
“Yes, but you did that on your own, despite knowing what it would cost you. You let me go. Because I asked. Because you knew it was the right thing to do.”
“But I stole your innocence. I made you do horrible things,” I say. “I am no better than my father.”
“Your father killed your mother. But I live, and I was free,” she says, her voice sincere, filled with emotion. “You are not your father.”
“What I did to you was still unforgivable.”
“I don’t care,” she says firmly.
I don’t understand how she could be so resolute. My hand slides over her cheek, desperate for a touch, even though I know she must hate me. “But you do. You hate me. Remember how you feel.”
“I was wrong!” she retorts. “Please, stay with me.”
Has she changed her mind about me?
I look down at her, clenching my teeth. Even if she has, it doesn’t change what I did. “If I don’t do this, the House and its rules mean nothing.”
“I don’t care. I am not losing you too,” she says.
I’m struck in awe at her conviction.
“I’ll hold you for as long as it takes.” She steps onto the chair with me. “And if I have to, I’ll jump down with you.”
The adrenaline suddenly kicks into gear, and I grab her. “No.”
“Give me one good reason,” she spits back.
I look her deep in the eyes. “The baby.”
Her pupils dilate, and it takes her a few seconds to respond. “You knew?”
I nod, as my eyes hover down to her belly where my son or daughter is growing. “Dr. Audrey doesn’t keep secrets from me.”
“And you still chose to set me free?” she asks, her face completely scrunched up as though she’s on the verge of more tears.
I don’t look away and nod. “It was your wish to be freed and not to raise a child in this home. It took me some time to realize … But you were right. My own childhood was horrible, filled with grief and the feeling of not belonging. I don’t want anyone else to go through that.” I swallow. “I already granted you one dark wish, and I knew I had to grant this one too. It was the best choice, and I don’t regret it. Not even if it cost me my life.”
The silence that follows feels like it lasts an eternity, and it hurts to see the look in her eyes, so full of melancholy but also something else … undying sympathy. And out of nowhere, she grabs my face and plants her lips onto mine.
Chapter 27
Amelia
I kiss him harder than I ever have before.
It’s not the kiss of a longing lover or a kiss of goodbye.
It’s a kiss of mercy.
A kiss filled with love and devotion.
A kiss that says … I need you, and I don’t want you to go.
Saliva mixes with salty tears as I kiss him, not giving a shit that we’re on the edge of the world and about to fall off. If that’s what it takes to keep him with me, I’ll do it. I want to face whatever it is that comes our way together.
Because what does freedom really mean if you don’t have the one you love to share it with?
I tried so hard to suppress my feelings for him and keep them buried under a layer of hatred. But the second Mary told me he set the others free and was going to end it right here, right now, because that’s what he was supposed to do according to the rules, I knew I had to stop lying to myself.
I had to face the one and only truth that I have never wanted a man to be mine more than I did Eli.
That is the only logical conclusion to the pain I’m feeling right now, when he is on the verge of disappearing from this world, leaving me breathless, confused, and alone.
And the sheer realization of that option made me want to cry out and call his name.