Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66732 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 334(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66732 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 334(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“I’m doing what we always thought I’d do.”
“That was before this mess.”
“His family has taken care of me throughout this mess.”
He snorts. “Hardly out of the goodness of their hearts, I’m sure.”
“What does that mean? You know what, it doesn’t matter. Considering what’s happened, Dad, I don’t think you can criticize them—”
“What did I just say about guilt?”
“Why would you cut a deal? Why not fight it? If you’re not guilty, you can win. Just tell the truth—”
He laughs outright, which has me fisting my hands in my lap. “You’re naïve, sweetheart. And that’s my fault. I was too protective of you. I let you believe the world was a good place. But I need you to listen to me now. I don’t want you marrying Ethan Fox.”
“Why not? You and the Foxes always thought we’d be married someday.”
“Someday is gone. Things are different.”
“For you, yes, but out there for me the Foxes have been like family.”
“Family? They are not your family.” What he sees in my expression makes him backtrack. “Do you love him?”
“What?” I ask, feeling a strange catching in my throat.
“Because from where I’m sitting, it sounds like obligation. Like blackmail.”
“Why would you say that? I’ve known Ethan for ten years. We grew up together.”
“That’s not an answer to my question.”
“Five minutes,” a guard calls out.
“Tell me something else. Do the Foxes know you’re here, Phee?”
I hesitate, but he raises his eyebrows and looks at me the way he used to when I was younger. “No,” I say, eyes cast down.
“I’m guessing they wouldn’t be pleased.”
“You’re the one who had your lawyer send me that letter telling me to stay away!”
Dad sighs and sets his elbow on the table, hand to his mouth as he studies me for what feels like an eternity. I know this stance. This is him thinking up his plan, adding up the pros and cons before proceeding.
“You’re disappointed,” I say when I can’t stand the silence a moment longer.
“Sweetheart,” he starts putting his hand over mine. “I want the best for you, and Ethan Fox is not it.”
“Did Silas tell you that?” I ask. “I didn’t realize you two were so close.”
“Time.” The guard calls for prisoners to line up, and chairs scrape as visitors and prisoners say their goodbyes.
I hate to say it, but I’m relieved.
“Silas is a decent man.”
At that, I snort. “Then you don’t know him like I do.” I stand.
“I’m going to call Higgins. He’ll make sure to draw up a solid prenup—”
“Prenup? Why would I need that? If anything, Ethan should be asking me for one. I need to go.”
“Ophelia!”
“Mr. Hart. Time. Rules are the same for everyone in here,” a guard says.
Dad ignores him. “Has he asked you to sign one?”
“I hardly see how that matters. Look, I came because you’re my father. I don’t want to abandon you. But you’ve put me in a difficult place here too. Ethan is my fiancé. You can’t ask me to choose between them and you. They’re not asking that.” Not outright, at least. I feel shamefaced to have said it.
“No? You don’t know Sly Fox like I do, Phee. He has a plan.”
“I didn’t come to fight with you.”
“Mr. Hart, I’m sorry,” the prison guard says, and he takes my father’s arm to walk him out of the visiting room. When he stops for them to open the door, Dad looks back at me.
“Stay away from them, Phee. Please.”
11
OPHELIA
Past
When Heroes Break, part 1
Inever thought, not once, that the day Ethan proposed to me would leave me with a feeling of anything other than elation. Excitement. Exhilaration even.
I never thought I’d say anything other than yes.
When I met Ethan Fox almost a decade ago, I always knew there would be something between us. Our meeting and the circumstances of it were somehow always leading up to this day, to the event that would follow.
I stand in the lobby of my building and look down at the ring in the center of my palm, at the gleaming princess cut diamond on its platinum band weighing down my hand. It makes my stomach fill not with butterflies of excitement and anticipation of what is to come, but something else. Something anxious and a little like dread.
But maybe that’s because the day coincides with news leaked to the press of new evidence that incriminates my father in a scheme even more serious than what he is currently facing charges on. I wish Ethan had waited to propose, but he couldn’t have known my dad’s face would once again be plastered across every television screen, every news channel and newspaper.
The elevator doors ding, and I watch them slide open, but I just stand there. I don’t get on because my legs aren’t working. A moment later, they close again, and the elevator ascends up to the fourteenth floor without me. I turn away, back toward the glass doors, slipping the ring into the pocket of my coat.