Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Blood. The puddle grows bigger and bigger, and it seems like forever before Lucca stops. I can’t look away from his hands. They’re coated in blood—so much blood. I shake when his eyes find mine. His penetrating stare submerges me into icy water. I’m afraid. I want to move, to run before he hurts me too, but I can’t make my limbs work.
Pain blankets every inch of my body.
The darkness in Lucca’s eyes fades slowly, and he looks down at my father and back at me as if he’s trying to piece the puzzle of what he’s done together.
The person I thought he was all along, the white knight, a friend, reappears.
In a flash, he crosses the room, fear overtaking his features while his gaze sweeps over my body. I struggle to move, trying to scoot away from him, but any type of movement makes the throbbing in my head worse. I’d rather die than attempt to move right now.
With his powerful arms, he picks me up off the floor and holds me to his chest. I push with all my strength, trying to escape him, but I’m in too much pain. Too far gone to care what happens next. The coppery tang of blood is all I can smell as I breathe through my nose. Lucca peers down at me, his eyes liquid pools of amber.
“Call an… ambulance,” I croak, afraid that my father may be dead before they arrive.
“Everything is going to be okay. He’ll never hurt you again. I swear on it. No one will, not as long as I’m breathing.”
I want to cry, but the tears aren’t there.
I’m broken. The man I thought would never hurt me, that would save me from everything, just took my entire life and crushed it into a million pieces.
1
Claire
Present
I keep my eyes trained to the floor, walking down the long hallway that leads to the double doors ahead. All I have to do is get outside, and I’ll be free of this building, and the people inside of it, for the rest of the day.
The dull sound of footsteps and chatter echo around me as the hallway fills with students being released from their last class of the day.
Everything I do is to limit the amount of attention I bring on myself. Today, however, there is no avoiding Cinderella’s three wicked stepsisters.
I look up just in time to see the three witches leaning against a nearby locker. My gut tightens like a knot being pulled tight. I hate them. Hate how they make me feel. How they bully me. Making fun of me because I can’t hear properly. Because the teacher always makes me sit up front because I have to ask people to repeat questions or look at me so I can read their lips.
They don’t like me because I’m different. If only they knew what made me this way, what caused me to lose my hearing. Maybe then they would be a little more compassionate.
Or maybe not.
Arabella sticks her heeled foot out at the last moment, and before I can stop, I trip over it, barely catching myself with my hands; my face nearly collides with the linoleum. Pain ripples up my arms from hitting the floor, and I grit my teeth, holding back a curse.
“Looks like Claire can’t walk any better than she can hear.” Bethany sniggers, tucking a strand of silky blonde hair behind her ear.
Popular. Gorgeous. Perfect in every way.
Bethany is mean, but nothing compared to the ringleader, Arabella. I shake my head and reach for the book I had clutched to my chest. My fingers graze the cover just as Arabella’s pointed heel comes into view.
Like the bitch she is, she presses it against my hand. My jaw quakes with how hard I’m clenching it.
“Oops,” she sneers and pulls her foot back a second later.
I bite my tongue, holding back the insult that’s building at the tip of my tongue. Nothing I say to them will change how they act. They want to hurt me, and I’m not giving them that type of satisfaction. I grab my book and scurry off the floor and out of the school before they try to do something else to me.
I don’t stop running until I reach the bus stop, and my heart doesn’t stop racing until I take my seat. My phone vibrates to life in my pocket, and I reach inside my tight jeans to pull it out. Hope flashes across the screen.
My best friend. My one and only friend. My lips turn up at the sides, and I answer the phone.
“Hey!” I hold the sleek device to my good ear.
“Jesus, I thought someone kidnapped you. Usually, you wait, and we walk together. Did something happen today?” Her words come out in a rush, and it sounds like she just got done running. Shit! It completely escaped my mind to wait for her. Arabella and her posse didn’t really help matters, but now I feel like an asshole.