Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 156029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
These were taken on the same day. He was on the yacht with Miranda during the day, and then that night he went home with Amy.
I look at the expression on his face; pure mischief. It’s the same look I saw on his face tonight.
Gross.
I exhale heavily and slam my computer shut in disgust.
I sip my tea and immediately get a vision of him kissing my hand and being all gorgeous. Ugh.
Thank God, I ran when I did.
I could have ended up being another notch on his sleazy bedpost.
I get a flashback of his cheeky smile, and I smirk. Lara was right, he is an appalling rake… and I can see why he gets away with it. He’s completely gorgeous. Of course, they all line up to date him.
Oh, well, I guess that’s the end of that.
I trudge up the stairs to my bathroom. I turn the shower on, making sure the water is steaming hot, and I take off my clothes as I make the solemn vow to never think of Mr Spencer again in my life.
Never ever.
* * *
I’m sitting at the dining table staring into space. It’s Sunday night and we’ve just eaten dinner. My two brothers are on either side of me, while my father is at the head of the table. They’re all talking, but I’m miles away.
I’m dreaming of a life where I didn’t have to worry about what people thought of me, where my family’s reputation doesn’t matter, and one where my brother wouldn’t have a broken heart.
It kills me to see him so hurt.
My eldest brother Edward is to take on the estate and the family empire when my father dies, because he is the oldest son. The universe clearly prepped him for his destiny before his birth, too. He is strong—an alpha—and a leader. Being cold, ruthless, and domineering, he will definitely fulfil his duties well.
My other brother William is the opposite. He’s pure perfection—my best friend and more like me than anyone on Earth.
William is a doctor, and our mother’s death rocked him hard. I don’t think he’s recovered yet. Do any of us ever recover?
William fell desperately in love with a woman not long after our mother’s death. He worshipped the ground she walked on. She was the life and soul of the party, a high society girl, and my father knew her parents well. The wedding was an extravagant affair, on every society page, and an absolute fairy tale.
The two of them had a baby; a son named Harrison. He’s four now and he’s their world, making their lives perfect. That was until my brother came home one day from a work trip early and found his wife in bed with another man. The affair had been going on for months.
It broke his heart. Ours, too.
My father banished her from the house, and from our lives. We only see Harrison when William brings him over now, and that’s rare.
Edward, my oldest brother, hates William’s ex with such a passion that I fear he would run her over in the street if he saw her. This rocked our family to its very core. How do you deal with infidelity, especially when he is still married to that person? Still with her to this day, actually.
He stayed with her because he didn’t want to leave his son. He didn’t want to be the one who ended the marriage, and she promised him the world if he stayed, blaming her indiscretions on him for working all the time.
But the worst part, the very worst part of it all, is that he still loves her.
He loves her so much that he would give anything to make her happy.
I see it in his eyes every time I look at him. I see how deep his hurt runs. He’s dying a slow death, knowing that the woman he loves doesn’t love him with the same purity as he loves her.
She never loved him and the whole world knows it.
It’s a whole new level of torture for everyone.
It was the money that she wanted—the designer lifestyle to go with her designer cocaine. She got her way, too. Now they live in Switzerland in a huge mansion that she definitely doesn’t deserve.
I hate her.
I hate her so much that it eats away at me day and night.
My mother would be rolling in her grave if she saw what William is living through.
It’s a hell that he never deserved.
Her name is Penelope—the walking, talking devil.
I’m pulled out of my thoughts by my brother’s raised voice.
“I don’t know about this!” Edward snaps.
My father exhales heavily and pinches the bridge of his nose. “You know we have to go.”
“Why can’t you just come back here?” Edward asks William. “It’s six weeks.”
“Because I can’t get time off. Not everyone works for Dad, you know.”