Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Everleigh’s lips peeled back from her teeth. “Keep spinning your fairy tales, Sinclair. It’ll add more weight when I tell the captain that you lost your mind and attacked me. I had no choice but to kill the insane Dreg that came at me.”
I carried on like she hadn’t spoken. “There was another reason I didn’t want to share this story. Because as much as I wanted to hurt you, that’s how much I wanted to save my guys from pain.”
“Blah, blah, blah.” Everleigh picked up a shard of the lamp. She leveled the jagged edge between my eyes. “I’ve heard enough from you.”
“Everton is alive,” I snapped. “At first, he wanted to make my father pay by taking everything he loved from him. But after nine years on the run, he wanted someone else. Everton met someone, fell in love, and they decided to fake their deaths and start over.”
“No.”
“Everton goaded my father into that last meeting. He let slip where he was, and Dad turned up believing they were ending it once and for all. Everton planned that too. He showed up wearing a bulletproof vest. One missed and caught him, but all the blood just sold the lie.”
“Nope,” she sang. “You’re a liar, and I’m not falling for it.”
“After Everton successfully fooled everyone.” I cringed as it came out of my mouth. “It was Sasha Dumont’s turn.”
The shard lowered a centimeter. “What?”
“Cato and Rafael’s mother,” I rasped. “Everton and Sasha fell in love. I don’t know anything about her side of the story except this... she blew up her own children to get away.”
“You’re not even trying to be believable anymore. Sasha Dumont? My dad didn’t know her and he didn’t want to know her. They had nothing to do with each other, and they sure as fuck didn’t run away together.”
“They called Astoria five years after they took off. Turns out, you can’t get by on just love. When the trust funds run out and you can’t access your bank accounts because you’re dead, you resort to blackmailing an old woman and threatening to tear down her shining reputation by telling the world her son is the leader of a criminal organization.
“Naturally, she told him to go to hell.” Everleigh’s brow twitched. “But she did hire someone to track him down, so she’d know where he was if he ever made such a stupid mistake again and came after her.”
“Give it up! I don’t—”
“That’s how she was able to give me his number.” I held up my phone, numbers already typed in. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me, so I’ll let you talk to Everton himself. I’m sure you still remember his voice?”
Everleigh’s jaw worked. A thousand emotions flittered across her face until she settled on one—seething rage.
I tapped call and put it on speaker before she let loose.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
“Hello?”
Jaw slackening, the shard slipped from Everleigh’s grip.
“Hello, who is this?”
“Hello,” I said, triumph clear and malicious in my voice. “This is Luna Sinclair-Burkhardt, daughter of your old pal, Alistair. I’ve got someone here who’d like to talk to you.”
“Luna Sin— It can’t be,” he said. “How did you get this number?”
“That’s not important. What is important is—”
“Daddy?” Everleigh snatched the phone. “Daddy, is that you?”
“Everleigh?”
“Oh my gosh,” she breathed. “Oh my gosh. How—? No, wait. Tell me something only my dad would know.”
“Uhh... Listen—”
“My sixth birthday,” she blurted. “Where did you take me on my sixth birthday?”
“I don’t—”
“Where did we go?”
He sighed. “I chartered a boat and we sailed to Valeria. We learned to make grass skirts and drank out of coconuts on the beach.”
Everleigh collapsed, falling flat on her butt and dropping against the bed frame. “It is you,” she whispered. “I can’t believe it... How? Where have you been?”
“You know where, or you couldn’t have made this call.” A hard edge steeled his voice.
“Milford, Maryland,” I helpfully supplied. “He and Sasha own a popular local restaurant.”
Everleigh looked through me. “Maryland? So close? But I don’t understand. You’ve been alive all this time? Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you come for me?”
“Have you forgotten the situation I was in? A fugitive. Bank accounts frozen. Hated by everyone I knew and everyone I didn’t. Living like a castoff out in the woods. It wasn’t a life, Everleigh. I had no choice but to fake my death. It was the only way to start over.”
“But why didn’t you take me with you?”
“I couldn’t,” he replied. “I would’ve had to fake your death too. Rip you away from your family, friends, and your parents. It wouldn’t have been fair to you.”
“What are you talking about? My friends are a bunch of vapid, social-climbing bitches and always have been. Mom and Stepdad treat me like garbage— No, they treat me worse than garbage. They act like I don’t even exist. You’re the only parent I ever had.”