Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 67722 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 339(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67722 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 339(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Does she see how close Sebastian is with me? Is that what it is? Am I threat to her? How? Why?
In my rush, I stumble over a stone raised a little higher than the others and fall down, scraping my knees. I look down at my hand, at the ring Aunt Helena gave me.
Aunt Helena is dead.
She died weeks ago, and Sebastian has known all this time.
Christ. I’m a fool. All that time in the car, me spilling my guts out about her. Telling him about that night, that secret I’d kept even from my sisters, I told him.
And when he told me to trust him, I did.
She said she found the letter in his trash can. Was he ever going to tell me? Or just avoid having to answer every time I asked him to let me make a call? Maybe work something out with my parents that they keep this a secret too.
If he’s lied about this, what else is he lying about?
I didn’t know about his twin brother. Never knew Sebastian isn’t technically firstborn. That his place isn’t cast in stone.
He told me about Lucinda being his stepmother, and I felt sorry for him. I felt sorry for him that his mother had died. If he’d told me she’d died on his birthday, he would have gotten even more sympathy out of me.
What else isn’t he telling me? What else is there he’s lying about?
Is it true what she said? That he didn’t have to do this? That he could stop it at any time?
“And it all just comes down to one thing. Money. He releases you from your obligation, and he forfeits his place as head of the Scafoni family. He loses everything. Sad little world we live in, isn’t it, when money is worth more than a human life?”
I get up, wince at the pain the tiny stones cut into my knees. The boat engine starts when I take my next step, and I wipe my face. I’m not crying over him. I’m not. My aunt is dead. These tears are for her.
I climb the steps up to the dock and go to the idling boat. Remy is at the steering wheel. He doesn’t come to help me on. I climb on myself, but it’s easy enough.
As soon as I’m on board, before I’m even seated, we pull away from the island.
I look back once, look back at the big, beautiful house with all its lights. With all its lies. All the liars inside it.
I hug my sweater to myself and move to step into the enclosed space of the boat, and I don’t expect there to be anyone on the boat but me and Remy, but someone’s inside the cabin. He stands as I enter. He’s tall and big, but he’s wearing a hoodie and I can’t see his face.
Something tells me to turn, to get off the boat, but we’re too far. When I try to run, a powerful hand closes around my arm, hurting me, bruising me.
I open my mouth to scream, but he smashes a cold, wet cloth over my face and just then, Remy turns around. But it’s not Remy. It’s Ethan. Ethan with a leering grin, watching me struggle, kick, and claw. And I realize my mistake too late.
Ethan’s face is the last thing I see as the chloroform does its work, and I feel myself weaken, feel my body slump against the powerful chest of the man behind me, feel him let up a little as my arms drop to my sides and my knees give out.
I hit the hard deck of the boat, feel the engine vibrate as a boot shoves me rudely aside. The man makes his way out of the enclosed space, and I hear the muffled sound of speech, smell the smoke of a cigarette as I lose consciousness and we speed toward whatever destination Lucinda has planned for me.
I knew she wasn’t doing this to help me.
But her intention wasn’t ever to let me go.
It was only ever to take me from Sebastian.
* * *