Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 49114 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 196(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49114 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 196(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
It’s a fact that I don’t know much about Lisa. I was a child when she left me at the school and didn’t look back, so there was no real way for me to get to know her.
Though I’ve always had a fear of her from my days spent in the same room as her wrath. It was a fear that I carried with me even now at an age when I should be getting over it.
It was that fear that brought me here when I should’ve been running hard in the opposite direction. But this, this thing that she was doing, was morally wrong. If what she was saying is true, then that old man was not worthy of my scorn.
Did anyone else know, suspect? The son? Oh dear heaven I hope not. Now a new fear took root in my gut. What if she’s found out? Will I be implicated? And what about the old man? Can I let her destroy his life with a lie?
But what can I do? I have no way of fighting her, I never did. I forewent the breakfast I’d been hungry for since I’d done little more than pick at my dinner last night, and settled for an orange. I wasn’t sure I could get even that down after her little tell-all exposé.
I spent the rest of the morning walking around in the garden thinking of what to do. I don’t know when it was that I decided that I was going to do anything.
Maybe it was my fear of being blamed along with her when this thing fell apart, as it inevitably will if that Luke had anything to say about it. I’m not one hundred percent sure that he’s not up to something.
Or maybe it was the thought of that poor woman who was suffering because she thought her husband had left her for someone else. My moral compass warred with my fear of Lisa and I had no idea, which would win.
“Elaina.” I almost jumped out of my skin at the sound of that voice. I was almost too afraid to turn around and face him, but there was no choice. I braced myself but it was no use. There was no dulling the effect he had on my senses.
LUKE
So it’s true, it’s still the same. I’d spent a very restless night thinking about her. I’d replayed everything about her from the moment I first saw her when she stepped out of the car, until our last goodbye.
My mind wouldn’t let up, wouldn’t let go of the thought that I was missing something. I’ve had tunnel vision these last few months, ever since the affair became public and everything that ensued.
But after meeting her, my mind was now consumed by something else. Her! It was Saturday so I had no pressing engagements, but I was sure had it been a Monday I would’ve found my way here just the same.
“How was your first night in your new home?” Why does she look like a scared bird? Or is this part of the act? Part of her lure. That same confusion reared its unwanted head again.
I studied the way her pulse raced in her throat, the way she wrung her hands together and more the way she refused to look at me but instead stared at the ground between her feet.
“It was fine thank you.” Did she learn to speak that way at that fancy boarding school? So cultured and refined? In those smooth sultry tones that seemed to caress a man without touching him?
It was yet another area in which she had that mother of hers beat. If you listened really well, there was no mistaking the brashness in Lisa’s uncultured tones.
But this one, spoke like the gentlest of ladies. I wasn’t falling for it though. And that shy little girl act was lost on me. “I came to take you to see the town since dad suggested I help you get settled.” What the fuck? Where the hell did that come from?
I had no idea what I was going to do once I got here, I just knew I wanted to see her, to see if my imagination had ran away with me. But it’s worse than I remembered. There’s something about her that keeps making me act contrary to myself.
“Let’s go!” I reached for her hand when it looked like she wasn’t going to follow me. Now she had no choice. I took her back inside to tell the old man that we were leaving to see the sights and cut the mother off when she started to object.
I didn’t realize I was still holding her hand until I was opening the car door to seat her. I barely restrained myself from belting her in and almost slammed the door in frustration.