Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 168587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 843(@200wpm)___ 674(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 168587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 843(@200wpm)___ 674(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
He grabs my arm and yanks me over to a trash can. Gripping the back of my neck, he shoves my face into it, and I vomit as he gathers my hair, holding it.
“Yes,” my father snaps, bringing me back. “The last thing you need is to let your pride get in the way.”
“This isn’t about fucking pride.” I fist my hands. “He killed Whitney—”
He slaps me across the face, cutting me off. “Do not mention her name!” he roars.
I cup my throbbing cheek, staring at the floor as fresh tears blur my vision. He’s never hit me before, and I try to hold in a sob, but everything is falling apart so quickly. I just thought today was going to be a horrible day. It’s gone from bad to worse faster than I could have ever imagined.
The door opens. “Lake?”
“I told you to get the fuck out, Miller.” Our father snaps at him, and the door slams shut, once again leaving me alone with him. “Now, where were we?”
EIGHT
TYSON
Three years ago
I stand tucked back behind the tree line, staring ahead at the family. I wasn’t allowed to come, but I slipped the security guy watching the gate a few hundred-dollar bills, and he let me enter the cemetery.
Whitney’s favorite color was pink, and they got her a white casket. She had a fear of burning to death, and they cremated her. Not sure why they chose to do a traditional funeral and bury her ashes in a twenty-thousand-dollar box, but I didn’t have a say.
I feel someone come up next to me and I look over to see Ryat by my side, hands in his slacks and eyes on the service. “I thought I’d find you here,” he says softly. He’s a freshman at Barrington this year while I’m a senior. It’s his first year of initiation, and he’s become a close friend.
My eyes look ahead, and I watch the service come to an end. The family kept it small. Only immediate family were allowed to attend. Which again, I find odd. Whitney was loved by many. She had a lot of friends at Barrington. Everyone who loved her should have been given the chance to say goodbye.
“You didn’t have to come,” I say.
“I know.”
Her mother hasn’t quit sobbing, and her sister, well, I’m surprised she’s even able to walk. Her older brother is holding her up. Their father hasn’t shed a tear. His children mean nothing to him. They are something to be used. A way to grow his own wealth and power.
I’ll make sure he remembers who I am.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Ryat asks softly, knowing what I’m going to do.
“It’s done,” I answer. I’ve made up my mind, and I’m not going to change it.
Her father helps her mother over to the black limo, and I watch it drive off. My eyes go back to the burial site, and I see Laikyn now on her knees in her black dress. I can hear her cries over the howling wind in the trees. Miller rubs her back, trying to help her up, but he too decides to kneel next to her.
If I had a heart, I’d say it feels for them. But I don’t. I was raised to believe I live for the Lords. But they’ve failed me, making me even colder than they already taught me to be.
My cell vibrates, and I pull it out of my pocket to see it’s my father. “Hello?” I answer, turning my back to them and walking toward my car.
“What in the fuck have you done?” he demands.
Guess he got word of my career change. “What I needed to do,” I answer simply.
“Tyson,” he growls my name. “You have a responsibility to this family. You cannot give it up for fucking pussy.” His voice rises to the point he’s screaming at me.
“I don’t expect you to understand.” He doesn’t love my mother. The Lords have always come first to him. His side pieces a close second. He thinks I fell in love with Whitney and it made me weak. He has no clue what I did and didn’t do, or how I feel.
Letting out an aggravated sigh, he lowers his voice. “What happened to Whitney was unfortunate, Son. But you don’t need to give up your life as well.” He pauses. “It won’t bring her back.”
A sob gets my attention, and I turn around to see Miller stand, picking up Laikyn and carrying her off to their Town Car. She clings to him, her cries growing louder the farther he walks away from the casket. “I don’t … want to leave her,” Laikyn sobs.
“She’s gone, Lake,” he tells her, placing her in the car. The sound of her sobs are no longer heard once he shuts the car door.