Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 113142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
She shook her head against my chest, lifting her ravaged face to her mother. “I’m staying with Adam,” she rasped. “You go without me.”
“Your place is with us,” Sarah insisted. “Remember your duty.”
I rolled my eyes at her statement. I’d had enough of her “duty” when it came to Ally.
“My place is with Adam.”
“You’re disrespecting Elena’s memory, Alexandra. This is for her.”
I couldn’t help the snort that escaped. Elena wouldn’t have cared less. “You, lady, have no idea what respect is. Your daughter doesn’t want to go, so she isn’t going. She’s staying with me.”
“My daughter is coming with me—where she belongs.”
A sudden breeze stirred the branches of the trees around us, causing the picture of Elena on the easel to thump loudly on the metal bars. I recognized the photo—I had taken it myself one night during a poker game. Elena was glancing at the camera, laughing hard at something Ally had said, the warmth so few people knew radiating from her. It was my favorite photograph of her, and a smaller copy was in my loft. No doubt Ally had supplied the picture for the service.
I almost started to laugh at the timing and knew this was the moment I’d been waiting for.
It was time to give Elena her last wish. She was waiting—impatiently—and had given me the sign.
Front and center, I’d promised her.
“Ally is staying with me,” I stated clearly, drawing in a deep breath. “My fiancée is exhausted and overwrought and will not be joining you at the lunch. She’s going home—with me. That is where she belongs.”
Sarah’s face became ghostly white as her eyes widened. “What did you say?”
I grinned at the horror in her voice. “You heard me, Mom. Ally and I are engaged. So, I think I do have a say in the matter. And I say she belongs with me.”
“You lie.”
Ally turned in my arms. “Don’t speak to him like that, Mother. He isn’t lying. He asked me to marry him, and I accepted.”
I lifted my arm with a smirk. “Want to give me a hug and welcome me to the family?”
Sarah’s lips thinned, a deep scowl now marring her face. Strangely, it made her look the most human I’d ever seen. “We’ll be discussing this when you’re calmer.”
I shook my head. “No thanks. We’ve already decided on a small, intimate ceremony in a place of our own choosing. We don’t require any discussions.”
“I won’t allow it.”
Before I could say anything, Ally spoke. “You have no say in it. I’m an adult and it’s my decision. I’m marrying Adam. I love him, and he loves me.”
I pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head, smiling at her declaration.
“He’ll be the ruin of you.”
“No, he showed me what life is about. He loves me for me. He makes me happy.” She placed a hand on her mother’s rigid arm. “Can’t you be pleased for me? Adam’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Give him a chance, please.” She squeezed her mother’s arm beseechingly. “Please…Mom.”
For one brief second, I thought she had succeeded. There was a small flash of something in Sarah’s eyes at the word Mom, but they quickly became cold again.
“You’ve been nothing but a disappointment. You do this, and I wash my hands of you.”
Ally sagged into me at the harshness of her mother’s words, her hand dropping in defeat.
“You coldhearted bitch,” I seethed. “How could you say that to her? You’ll turn your back on your own daughter because she wants to be happy?” I shook my head. “Of course you would. You turned your back on her when you chose that prick of a husband over her. I shouldn’t be surprised. You don’t deserve her.”
With those words, I lifted Ally into my arms, cradling her next to my chest. “We’re staying here for a while, and then I’m taking her home. Unless you want that scene, I suggest you step aside.” I indicated the small groups, still hovering around, now watching us with interest. “I’m sure your counterparts would love a good show to talk about at your lunch.”
With a glare, Sarah turned on her heel and stormed away. Ignoring everything and everyone around us, I walked over to Elena’s grave and sat down on the stone bench that was close, holding Ally.
We needed some time with Elena—alone.
“I tried to save her.”
“I know, Nightingale.”
“I talked to her at lunch, and she was fine. When I got there for dinner, I knocked, but she didn’t answer. I used my key and found her on the kitchen floor. I called the ambulance and started CPR. She wouldn’t wake up. I tried,” she repeated, her voice plaintive. “But she stopped breathing, and she was gone.”
I drew back, concerned, looking down at her. I had seen her strong and capable. Happy and laughing. Weary and tired. I had also seen the effect her mother and Ronald had on her, destroying anything positive and making her feel less than she was, but right now, she sounded so lost and vulnerable—almost broken.