Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
I dropped the envelope like it had burned me. The next one was the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. I ripped the letter out of the envelope and saw the words “pleased to accept—”
One at a time, I went through the envelopes, pulling each letter out. They were from some of the finest programs not only in the United States, but France, Italy and even the Royal College of Art in London, my dream school. When I opened the others, I was hopeful, but when I came to the Royal College of Art, I was utterly speechless. Ripping the letter out of that envelope and seeing my acceptance but then reading further and finding that the deadline for the semester had already passed—I didn’t understand.
“Where did you find these?”
“The same place I found all the blackmail on my family and half the other families in the city, your mother’s safe deposit box.”
“No,” I said. “She wouldn’t. She knew this was my dream. She knew it was my—”
“It was your path out from under her claws. Your mother doesn’t want you going to school for the same reason she hasn’t tried to marry you off in some ridiculous contract marriage. She wants you under her thumb where she can control absolutely everything you do.”
I stared at the crushed pages, wrinkling in my hands, still not understanding what this actually meant.
“Your mother destroyed my life with a vile lie that forced my father to throw me into seminary school. My priest’s collar was not a calling, but a prison sentence forced on me by your mother. She took my life, and I am getting my revenge. I am asking you now to join me. Take revenge for the life she stole, while you’re still young enough to reclaim it.”
“You’re not exactly old,” I replied, still staring at the pages.
“No, I’m not. But I’m also not part of my family’s business. I do not have the college education that would allow me to live up to my name, and while your mother is still freely walking about, she is a threat.”
When a horn blared, I looked up and saw that we had made it to the outskirts of the city. I would not give Father Manwarring, Thomas, an answer. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. There was so much here that I had to process that I could not wrap my mind around it all.
My mother being a horrible person was not exactly news. I had seen firsthand the way she meddled in people’s lives and the lengths she would go to, to destroy them. But to have her do that to me.
To have her get my hopes up, encourage me to apply to schools so I wasn’t such an embarrassment, just for her to take away my acceptance letters and use my assumed rejection to further shame me.
It wasn’t until I held those envelopes in my hands that I realized I had still held onto some hope that she loved me. That somewhere deep down in her cold, vicious heart, she was doing what she thought was best for me. Every time she screamed at me, every time she belittled me or struck me, she did that for my own good to help me become the woman that I needed to be.
Then to have this so cruelly thrown in my face. What was I supposed to do now? Pretend that Thomas wasn’t using me to get back at my mother this entire time? Was I supposed to pretend that he hadn’t manipulated me into developing feelings for him?
Was I supposed to pretend that he never manipulated me to get to my mother’s safe deposit box? Or that he hadn’t killed Raul? And even if he hadn’t killed Raul, he still went there. He still shot that recording, intending to hurt me.
“Do you understand now?” he asked. “Can you feel the same rage coursing through your veins that I do?”
I stared out the window at the city I had called my home for so long and gave him the first answer that felt like pure honesty. “Yes, I can feel the rage.”
CHAPTER 30
THOMAS
The way she admitted to feeling rage made my heart ache.
I considered dropping her off at Amelia’s school or even taking her back to my rooms in the rectory, but I couldn’t. Not because I didn’t want to, or there was anything preventing me, but I knew Rose needed to face her mother. She deserved the opportunity to say her piece while she was still able.
Rose’s anger would soon fade, her nerve would be lost, and she would regret it forever. That pain would fester inside her, and then there really would be no hope for her.
She got out of the car without another word and then took her luggage from the trunk.