Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Dr. Laurel suddenly stands up, so violently his chair shoves backward into the wall behind him. “What does any of it matter? She’s gone, so who the fuck cares now?”
“But—” I sputter. “But you were the one who told me how much the world needed our research, how it was never just about one patient, it was—”
“Fuck the world!” He swipes a furious forearm and clears his desk of everything on it in one crashing swoop. “Without her there’s nothing! Nothing.”
And then the paragon of strength and brilliance I’d looked up to for years dissolved into a puddle right in front of me, sobbing into his own armpit.
I want to turn away. Daphne deserves better than him. She always has. For him to just give up like this, in a room that smells sour with sweat and booze, while she’s out there busting her tail, I know in part to prove herself to this man…
But I start to approach him anyway. He’s an old, sad man, and he at least deserves some compassion.
“What have you done to the poor man?” Adam’s voice grates, always when it’s least possibly needed.
But Dr. Logan looks towards the door like his salvation’s come.
Because suddenly somehow I’ve become the bad guy in this scenario? For telling the truth? For trying to ostensibly get the company back on track to what Dr. Laurel always said he wanted for it?
But watching as Adam enters the room and takes Dr. Laurel under his broad, football arm and guides him out of the room, no doubt to his own car to drive him home and tuck him into bed—I can see the entire façade of charity driven by a cold-blooded desire to play to win.
The two of them fucking deserve each other.
But they think they can get rid of me that easy? They’re dead fucking wrong. I’m not going to lie down and play dead. I’ll be back bright and early tomorrow morning, a pin in their sides, a splinter underneath their finger…
But tonight?
I look down at my phone. No missed calls or new messages.
As much as I want to pretend all this doesn’t affect me, it’s a lie. I know myself. The pressure is building.
I need a release valve and I need it bad.
I haven’t visited the dungeon in months. Long, long months.
But if I don’t unwind some of this tension, it really will be ugly when I lash out. I stretch my neck this way and that, the first wave of calm settling over me as I begin to adopt the persona of him.
The Master.
But then all I can see is her face. Daphne.
What if I go by her place instead?
And do what? She might be 19, but she’s still just a child. She’s not ready for all I want to unleash. And with everything happening with her dad’s company, is it really fair to put her in the middle of it?
Still, before I’ve even completely thought it through, I’m dialing her number and holding the phone to my ear. Lately it feels like she’s the only person I can really talk to.
She doesn’t pick up, though, and I hang up before I can hear her silken voice on the message again.
I lean back against the wall and drop the phone to my side. Probably for the best. I look around the darkened offices and a chill goes up my spine. I can’t leave well enough alone. I need to have some sort of contact with her. She’s my touchstone right now, though it might freak her out to know that.
But if Adam and her father have anything to do with it, she and I will never have the future I dream about together. If Dr. Laurel fires me and I don’t get a chance to say goodbye to her, if Adam tries to poison them against me with his lies—
My fingers are on the phone, tapping out a text on the glowing screen in the otherwise darkened hallway. If anything ever happens, please know you’re my best friend. Give me a chance to explain. Meet me at Thornhill, beside your mom’s grave. Don’t mean to freak you out. Just in case anything ever happens.
It’s an ominous message and part of me feels regret at ever hitting send. But then again, it’s been six months since her mother died. I’ll give her all the time she needs and maybe she’s not ready for everything I’m into, but…
I can’t deny it anymore. My thoughts are full of her, night and day. Whenever she’s ready, I want to try. I can go slow. As slow as she needs.
And in spite of everything, the terrible day, finding out what a snake in the grass Adam is and Dr. Laurel turning out to be such a disappointment—I smile.
Because for the first time, I let myself dream of a future with her.