Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 129571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Sitting down in her chair, she crossed her legs, took the glass from my hands, and sipped it with one elegant movement. After she swallowed, a smile spread across her face. “Louis XIII?”
“You know your cognac.”
“No, I know my men.” Sophia must’ve had a love for acting, when she was young. I’d dated a lot of theater girls in college. They always spoke with their hands. With Sophia, the beginning of a sentence began with a flick of her index finger. During long sentences she drew invisible squiggly lines as if trying to hypnotize me.
That time, she flicked her index finger and then formed a large heart around her. Or maybe it was just my imagination.
I blinked my eyes. “What did you say?”
“Never mind.” She took another sip. “Why wasn’t I invited to the Masquerade Ball?”
I rubbed my face and headed back to the bar to pour another glass for myself. “Jasmine decided that only my friends should be there. She thought the party was ridiculous, and this was about introducing her to my world.”
“Are we all not a part of your world now? This is my daughter. I am her family.”
“Yes. I understand.” I probably filled my glass with more than I needed to. “I explained that to Jasmine, but she was pretty ... serious about not wanting to invite her family and friends.”
“I thought we were working together toward the same goal, Chase. Was I wrong?”
I raised the glass to my lips and took a long gulp. The cognac stung my tongue, but not for long. The rest was a smooth ride. A surge of numbness split every one of my cells.
“Chase?”
“Yes.” I took another gulp.
“Are you okay?”
“No.” Third gulp came harder and ripped through my throat.
“Where’s my daughter?”
I turned around and headed to my chair. “In the city.”
“I don’t believe you.”
I plopped into my chair. “Why would I lie?”
“Because you’re a man.”
“I don’t know how I should take that.”
“It’s just a simple fact that men are stupid. They drag things out further than they need to.” She set her empty glass on my desk and lay back in her chair. “I was coming over here this morning regardless. No way was I going to let my daughter think that she could just run off and ...”
Our love isn’t worth other people’s deaths? Let them all die. I can’t live without you, Jasmine.
“... and I knew it was Benny.”
I snapped my attention to Sophia. “What?”
“I said when I heard about the dead girl on the news—”
“What dead girl?”
“At the ball, Chase.” She chopped the air with one hand. “Keep up. I saw the news last night. The whole city is talking about your ex-girlfriend’s corpse hanging like a decoration at the masquerade ball. There’s some gruesome pictures going around all over the net from the few guests that snapped pictures on their phones. Why someone would do that, I don’t know. I would just be running out of there. It’s insanity—”
“What were you saying about Benny?”
“I said the news claims that Stone Industries has no idea who did it, but I know. Benny did it.” She rose from her chair, picked up her glass, and took it over to the bar. “This is classic Benny. He’s always so dramatic and has absolutely no regard for human life.”
And you chose this man to have twins with?
“That’s when I decided to rush over here this morning, before Jasmine and you did anything stupid.” Without asking, she served herself more cognac. “If he’s dangling dead white girls out in front of the world, then he’s out of control, which means he’s mad. He doesn’t like you or your father. He’s been adamant about that as long as I’ve known him. Now for you to fall in love with Jasmine ... well, that was just too much for him.”
I finished my glass. “Jasmine is missing.”
“No, she’s not missing.” She faced me. “Is she?”
“No.”
“She left.”
“Yes.”
“Because Benny said what?”
“That we couldn’t be together.”
“This is classic Romeo and Juliet. It’s just that Juliet’s father is a deranged serial killer.”
“Serial killer?”
“A man that murders a lot of people in a ritualistic manner. That’s him. I’ve known him for over twenty years. Benny is dangerous, and he won’t leave you alone until he believes he’s received some sort of justice or what he rightfully deserves. It took me years to shake him, and even now ...” She looked away for a few seconds. “Even now ... I don’t know if I shook him.”
“He still comes by?”
She took that moment to sip her drink. “When did Jasmine leave?”
“This morning.”
“With him?”
“I assume so.”
“I was hoping to come over here before she left.” She shrugged. “That’s okay. I’m here. Everything is going to be okay. We’re going to work this out. You got the money, and I have the plan.”
“Plan?”
“Yes.”
A liquid buzz settled down on me. I rubbed my temples with my free hand. “I’m not understanding this, Sophia.”