Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 178117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 712(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 178117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 712(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
“What?” Alistair mutters.
He doesn’t know what I heard in that car. What despicable truth came from my father’s mouth. “He called Ricci and told him where we were so you guys would die, and he could take me.”
“Wait,” my father mumbles as I stick a knife under his throat. “I would do anything for you, Dylan, you know that. I’m your father.”
“You’re not my fucking father anymore!” I scream in his face. “You almost killed the girls I loved twice!”
“Dylan?” Penelope’s voice calls to me, and I look up.
I know she heard me. But I don’t regret saying that word out loud.
Felix has his arm around her, keeping her from running to me.
She’s here. She’s safe.
But Eve wasn’t.
We should’ve protected her from him.
I inch closer with the knife, imagining myself slicing through his throat. But with every passing second and every droplet of sweat rolling down my forehead, the idea of actually committing becomes harder and harder.
“You can’t do it, can you?”
I push myself off him and lift him from the ground so we’re face-to-face. With my knife still pointed at his face, I brace myself for the attack.
“Do it then,” he says. “If you want to kill me so badly.”
My teeth grind together, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t push myself to stab him.
Fuck!
Why can’t I fucking do it? He deserves every inch of pain.
Suddenly, Penelope comes rushing out of nowhere and stabs him in the belly.
He cringes, and I step back in shock.
“That’s for driving my sister over the edge,” Penelope growls.
“Dylan!” Alistair calls out, but I can barely hear him.
My father stumbles backward while I struggle to hold on to the knife I was determined to stab him with.
“Dylan, what are you doing?” Penelope asks, but I can barely hear her. When she grabs my arm, my eyes fixate on her grip and find her eyes after.
What is going on with me?
Suddenly, my father pulls out a gun and points it at Penelope.
I push her out of the way. “No!”
BANG!
The gunshot hits me in the shoulder, and the force knocks me down into the grass.
“Dylan! Look what you made me do.” My father’s gun is still pointed right at Penelope. “That girl needs to perish.”
When I turn to look at her, Felix has already stepped in front of her.
“I’d rather fucking die than watch you kill her in front of me,” Felix rasps.
He’d die for her?
I never realized his obsession with her went that deep … but maybe he didn’t either. And I have a feeling none of us knew we were falling for her until it was too late to stop.
I’m momentarily too stunned to move, not just from the pain but from all the bundled-up emotions too.
Until Ali steps between her and the barrel too. “I won’t let you kill her.”
My father grinds his teeth. With each passing second, his eyes looked increasingly insane, like he couldn’t stomach the idea of all of us protecting this one girl.
“That girl is responsible for all of your problems, just like her goddamn sister, and now you’re all protecting her?” he growls.
Suddenly, he points the gun away from them … and aims it at me.
“What are you doing?” I ask, writhing on the ground.
“Get up,” he growls.
I do what he says only because of the barrel of the gun and the imminent threat to my life.
“Come here,” he says.
Everyone’s on edge, including me.
Would he actually shoot me? But all the schemes, all the lies, they were all to protect me, right?
He whips his gun back and forth and says, “Come. Now!”
Any semblance of emotion is gone from his face, something that’s never happened before.
At least, not in my presence.
But I guess he kept this side of him hidden from me all this time.
I swallow and approach him.
“Dylan, don’t do it!” Penelope says.
“Don’t intervene,” I reply, terrified she might try something. “Felix, take her,” I tell him.
He nods, but Penelope protests, fighting against Felix’s strong grip on her shoulder. “No! Fuck no, I’m not going anywhere!” she yells, tears staining her eyes. “I’m not leaving you.”
I’m struck by the sincerity in her voice.
Could she possibly ever forgive me for what I did?
My father grabs my bloody arm and pulls me to him, pushing the barrel into my head. “You drove me to do this. I sacrificed everything for you, and for what?”
“You did this to yourself,” I growl. “I never asked you for a damn thing.”
“That girl was going to ruin your life!” he spits back, shoving the gun further into my head.
“So you ruined hers instead,” I grit.
He practically spits out his words. “I had no other choice!”
“So you admit it,” Penelope rasps from the side, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Watching her cry hurts more than the wound in my shoulder.
Fuck. I wish I could spare her from this pain.