Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 82094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“I want to talk to you,” I say and stride to the desk.
Grandpa looks up with a frown. “Brice—”
“Is Carmine still involved with Rowe Oil?”
He looks at me with surprise and leans back in his chair. He fiddles with his glasses for a moment, wiping their frames, before nodding. “Yes, he is.”
“Why?”
“Because even though the two of you are no longer engaged, we still have contracts. He still owns his shares. I can’t go back on that deal.”
“And he hasn’t spoken to you? About me?”
“No, he hasn’t.”
I don’t know why that hurts. I shouldn’t have asked but the question tumbled out and now I feel even more weak and needy than I did before.
“I don’t want him anywhere near me.” I sit down on the armchair and lean forward. “I know the marriage was in the documents—”
“We can handle that. We’ll renegotiate if necessary, but I suspect Carmine won’t put up much of a fight after all.”
A strange, sudden, sharp stab of disappointment tears me in half.
I don’t know what I thought. Maybe I hoped he’d reach out to my grandpa and demand that they send me back to him. At least that would somehow vindicate me—or maybe prove that he gives a shit about marrying me after all. Instead, this silence is so much worse, like everything that happened between us was just some fake game for him, all a product of his initial creepy motives.
But something did happen between us. I keep thinking to that moment in the car when the Panagos goons opened fire. Carmine could’ve done anything in that moment, and he chose to throw himself on top of me. There was no time to think, he simply reacted on gut instinct, and his instincts told him to protect me at all costs, even if it meant getting himself killed.
That’s not how people act when they don’t care.
If I was nothing but a toy to him, he should’ve been happy to let me get killed. Heck, he should’ve pulled me on top of him and used me as a shield.
Instead, he protected me.
I keep coming back to that moment, over and over again.
Because that’s the one moment where he couldn’t lie. He didn’t have time to fake anything. He had to act, and he chose to save me.
That means something.
But I don’t know what, and I don’t know if it matters.
“Where’s Daddy been?” I ask because, apparently, I love pain right now.
“Your father’s busy raising new funds to help dig the family out of the hole we’re currently in.”
“Why would anyone give him money now? He’s going to jail.”
Grandpa grimaces. “We don’t know that. The judge showed leniency in giving him bail.”
“Daddy’s going to jail, Grandpa. We both know he’s guilty.”
“Thanks to Carmine.” Grandpa’s face twists into an angry mask. “Would we be in this position if it weren’t for him? I don’t suppose we would.”
“It doesn’t matter if Carmine leaked the documents. Daddy’s still guilty.”
Grandpa grunts. “Yes, you’re right, of course you’re right. Brice, honey, why don’t you go get some rest? You’ve been looking so… tired lately.”
He doesn’t need to say what he really means: you’ve been crying a lot and I don’t like having that around. I stand and give him a tight, fake smile. “Yes, Grandpa, I’ll go take my emotional displays somewhere else.”
“Thank you,” he murmurs as if I weren’t being horribly sarcastic.
I turn and walk away. Disgust shivers down my spine. I left one hell for another and now I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck here with my family, the people that barely care about me, and there are no good alternatives. I could go back to the apartment, but I don’t feel safe there, not until I’m sure that Panagos isn’t going to try to kidnap or kill me or something like that. And who knows how long that’ll be. Daddy’s “raising funds,” whatever that means, and in the meantime, I’m stuck.
I want more. I want Carmine. But Carmine’s a liar and he ruined my family and manipulated me into becoming his fiancée, and now I’m going to spend my days in this nightmarish manor, swallowed by its excess and its history, just another lost and forgotten piece of machinery in a vast network of lives.
And I’ll be lost here forever, if I can’t find a way to get out.
Chapter 21
Carmine
I crack my fist into Christopher’s face and the old capo’s head snaps back. He groans and blood and sweat drips down onto the ugly, stained tank top he’s wearing over a pair of ripped and soiled black slacks. I caught the fuck as he was getting ready for church, of all times, and I didn’t give him a chance to finish pulling his shirt on. I pressed a gun against his gut and told him he had a choice: die in front of his wife or follow me. He chose to follow.