Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Her eyebrows climbed at the abrupt dismissal. “You didn’t let me do anything for you,” she said, her voice edging on a complaint.
“You did do something. Something important. Now I have to walk you out. This is about Cami and Emma.”
I walked her to the elevator even though the urge to tell her to see herself out was nearly overpowering. She had her chin up, her back stiff, but she relented to peck me on the cheek goodbye. “Let me know when you find them.”
“I will.”
She hesitated before stepping onto the elevator. I didn’t try to hide my impatience. “I love Emma, too,” my mother said so formally she could have been inviting me to high tea rather than declaring affection for her granddaughter.
I nodded. “I know.”
The elevator doors slid closed, and I raced back to my office. My fingers flew across the keyboard, and I skimmed the unencrypted message so quickly that I had to go back and look at it again to make sure I’d read it right.
Because I couldn’t have read it right the first time.
There was no way.
But after I’d read it again, slower this time, I realized I hadn’t been mistaken.
My mouth went dry. My vision narrowed to pinpoints. Rage swam through my bloodstream until it boiled underneath my skin.
There had never been a real threat.
It had been Robert and Elyna all along.
30
CAMI
Again, I felt as though someone had grabbed the edges of the rug I was standing on and yanked, flipping me head over heels, leaving me spun out and disoriented. How often had this happened now? More times than I cared to think about, but I wasn’t getting any better at sticking the landing.
The nausea roiled my stomach just as intensely as before. Sweat broke out on my forehead. A faint buzzing blocked up my ears. I stared fixedly at the message on the screen, then began scrolling up. The messages were clearly set to delete after twenty-four hours, but the ones that were still there told me everything I needed to know.
My mother and Robert had orchestrated the threats.
Which meant they were never real.
Which meant I’d run for no reason.
I sat back and put my hot, sweating palms to my cool, bloodless cheeks. Why had they done it? Why?
I stayed seated in that chair for a long time. Emma came down from her room and tried to get me to turn on the TV for her, but I couldn’t move. She was on the verge of a tantrum when we heard the front door open. Robert and Mom were home. Still, I couldn’t move. They came in and found me sitting there. I didn’t even try to hide what was on the screen.
Instead, I turned to them slowly. The swivel of the chair creaked. Emma looked at my white face and reconsidered her meltdown. My mother looked at my face and frowned. “What’s wrong with you?”
Robert looked at my face, then at the screen behind me, and knew.
“Elyna, take Emma into the other room,” he said quietly.
“I was just about to–”
“Elyna,” Robert repeated firmly. “Take Emma into the other room. Now, please.”
My mother’s eyes widened, and she turned to look at Robert. She was still debating whether to push back, but what she saw on his face made up her mind. “Come on, darling.” She held her hand out to Emma, who took it. They both left, glancing back over their shoulders with identical expressions of confused interest.
Robert came into the room, pulling up another chair until we were practically knee to knee. I was looking right at him, but I couldn’t see him. Not the man I’d known and loved for twenty years anyway. Who was this awkwardly tall, aristocratically gaunt man peering into my face, saying words that were jumbling up and not making any sense. He was always so well spoken.
“I mean, it is what you think,” he fumbled, “but it’s also not. Do you understand, Cami?”
I shook my head slowly, hearing the buzzing intensify as I turned my head one way and then the other before coming back to rest on the focal point of his face. “I don’t understand at all,” I said hoarsely. “Why did you do it? Does my mother know?”
“No,” Robert said immediately. “Elyna has no idea.”
He sounded convincing, but I didn’t believe him. He would say anything to protect her.
“Why?” I asked again. I hated how pathetically small my voice sounded, like I’d reverted to being the seven-year-old child I’d been when Robert came into my life.
Robert’s eyes dropped to the floor, and that was when I was sure my mother had been behind this. That she was the one who held the why. Neither would ever admit it though. Not for anything.
“To protect you,” Robert said quietly.
“Protect me?” Unbelievably, I laughed, a short, sharp, unamused sound that turned into a sob.