Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77054 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77054 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“Are you okay?” he asks as he sets down his glass.
I blow out a breath and close my eyes.
It’s okay. You just got swept up in the moment.
It didn’t mean anything.
A hand on my shoulder makes me jolt up and down.
“kitten?”
He turns me around.
Another hand follows.
He leans in, pulls me closer, and plants his lips on mine once again.
It’s a greedy, overbearing kiss as though the kiss itself is hurting him. As though I’ve hurt him. But the longer he soothes me with his delectable kisses, the more my mind begins to spin out of control.
Because not only did many people die in the fight … but the entire fight also started because of me.
Because my father, Frank, wanted me back from Marcello.
And Igor, my real dad, died in front of my own two eyes.
His blood is on my hands … And on Marcello’s.
He knew who my parents truly were. He knew what Frank had done to Igor, to me. He was the one to pull me from my burning house, he brought me to Andrea, he …
He’s responsible for all my misery.
Harper
As our lips unlatch I lean away, wishing I could forget everything I knew. But it’s too late for that.
“What is it, kitten?” he murmurs against my red, hot lips.
I look away. “Nothing … I …”
“Spill it,” he commands. “I will not allow you to keep secrets from me.”
Bile rises in my throat. “Oh … like those secrets you kept from me?”
He cocks his head, his eyes narrowing as I move away. “Secrets?”
“You knew everything. You knew all along who my parents were. You knew who Frank and Molly were, and you knew they stole me from Igor. Didn’t you?” I growl. “And you never told me.”
He sighs out loud and turns around. Without saying a word, he undresses in front of me with his back turned to me. Tie first, then jacket. As the white shirt drapes off his shoulders that same, familiar tattoo makes my eyes widen.
“It really was you who saved me from that fire …” I mutter. “You brought me to Andrea.”
He glances at me over his shoulder, eyes blazing. “Yes, kitten. I was there that night. And I brought you to her.”
“You knew her?” I scoff.
He stands there, tall and proud, like he isn’t ashamed of ever lying to me, even though he should be. “She’s my aunt.”
Rage boils up to the surface. “You could’ve told me.”
He turns sideways, muscles tightened. “Would it have made a difference? Would you have believed me when I told you how twisted our world is?”
“You didn’t even give me a chance to understand!” I yell, overcome with emotions. “You knew who I was and you knew they were alive!”
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t know Molly and Frank stole a child, and I didn’t know they were alive either until today,” he responds.
“What about my name then?” I mutter.
He blinks a few times. “You wore a bracelet with your first name on it.”
“You knew my name when you bought me.”
He stares me down. “Your first name. Not your last. And Harper is not an uncommon name. I didn’t know you were the girl I saved.”
With my hands in my hair, I look around, trying to find my bearings, but the world feels like it’s caving in on me. Everything I thought I knew was a lie, and only now is it really setting in.
“In fact, I didn’t even know it was Molly and Frank’s house when I pulled you from that fire until you first mentioned their names,” he says, his fists balling. “If I did, I would’ve gone after them myself and killed them off after what they did to you.”
Killed them? Why? No. That’s the last thing on my mind.
“No!” The sheer force of the panic filling my veins is too much. “You don’t understand. All this time, I searched for them. I wasted hours—years of my life!”
“What would you have done if you’d actually found them? Hmm?” he asks, stepping closer to me. “If they told you who you really were?”
“I don’t know,” I say, searching his eyes for the truth, but the more I look, the more lies I see. “But I could’ve tried. I could’ve done something.”
“You loved them,” he says.
“They were my parents,” I say, swallowing back the tears.
“They were not your parents,” he says.
“But they raised me!” I yell back, feeling betrayed by the truth itself.
“You just find it hard to come to terms with the real you. And I don’t blame you, kitten. It would be hard for anyone to learn they are a Russian mobster princess.”
“Don’t … don’t say that word,” I say, lifting a finger.
“It’s the truth,” Marcello says. “And I didn’t know either until Frank explained what he had done. Everything suddenly made sense.”
“Stop …” I say, briefly closing my eyes.