Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 103356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Lilac called out his name,” Ryleigh said.
“I didn’t know if I’d get through to him,” Lilac said. “I never know how he’s going to react. I told him that I needed his help picking a dress for my date with Don.”
“Who the fuck is Don?” Tanner demanded.
“The guy who became our ticket out of there,” Lilac explained. “He was one of my prospective grooms. Stefan had plans to marry me off to help build his empire, and there were several men vying for my attention. Not because they wanted me. They wanted a connection to Stefan. Don was the best of them. The others were creepy. The way they looked at me, touched me. Once, one of them . . . he tried to, uh . . . he tried to rape me in the backseat of his limo. I managed to fight him off and I jumped from the car. Thankfully, it had slowed for a stop light. There was a car coming the next way. They nearly ran me over. But they stopped in time and took me to the hospital. God, Stefan was so angry.”
“At that asshole for trying to rape you?” Tanner would have fucking murdered him.
“No, at me. For jumping out of the car and attracting so much attention.”
“What the fuck?” Tanner was going to kill him. Extra slowly.
“It must have been my fault,” she said. “It was always my fault if I attracted a man’s attention. And he was always upset at me.”
“Because he wanted you for himself but couldn’t have you,” Opal said.
Lilac shuddered. “Gross.”
“He was fucked in the head,” Opal said. “You were his toy. He wanted to give you out to others to play with, but at the same time was jealous that you gave them your attention.”
Lilac took in a sharp breath. He wrapped his arms tight around her.
“Yeah. I guess you’re right. Stefan was an expert at reading people. Early on, he figured out that the way to punish me was to hurt people I cared about. Sometimes, he’d hit me. Usually when he couldn’t hold back his temper. But often, he’d find some way to strike deeper. So, I knew it was a really dumb idea to let him know how much I cared for Opal. For Ryleigh. Interrupting him, strangling Ryleigh could have backfired, yet there was nothing else I could do. Mentioning Don’s name was also a dumb move. I knew it would upset him if I seemed to favor one of them. And like I said, Don was the best of the lot. I didn’t want Stefan to hurt him. So I told Stefan I needed help choosing a dress that didn’t show too much skin because the way Don looked at me grossed me out. He liked that.”
“He laughed,” Ryleigh said.
“Yeah. He did. Then he let Ryleigh go and took me upstairs to choose a dress. But I knew . . . I knew I had to somehow get Ryleigh and Opal out of there. He’d pulled the rose-colored glasses off Ryleigh’s eyes. And he wouldn’t play nice anymore. Plus, he was becoming increasingly violent toward Opal. I was worried that he’d . . . that he’d kill her one day and I wouldn’t be there to save her.”
“Wasn’t your job, Lilac,” Opal told her. “You think you had to save both of us, but you needed saving just as much.”
“I came up with a plan,” Lilac said. “I just needed Don’s help. God, I was so scared to ask him. He might have told Stefan. But for some reason, he agreed to help. He got us some false identities and a pile of cash. Then I just needed a distraction for the guards. But Don had that under control too. Stefan had gone out to his club that night, and Don decided to join him to provide himself with an alibi. Not that Stefan would likely guess he’d helped us, but better safe than sorry. Don paid some young guys to ram the front gate, then take off. As security responded, I grabbed Ryleigh and Opal and our stuff that I’d had the cook keep safe for me. She always liked me.”
“All the staff did,” Ryleigh added.
“Yeah. And then we ran. And I foolishly thought we were free,” Lilac added. “But we weren’t.”
“He came after us,” Opal said.
“It didn’t take his goons long to find us the first time,” Lilac said. “We only managed to get away that time because we spotted them outside the motel we’d been staying at. We were on our way back from dinner. We got in the car and left without our stuff. I had all of our money and identities, but none of our clothes. We had to start over with new phones and new IDs. We sold our car and bought Sugar. But we managed to pick up jobs here and there. I thought we were going to be okay.”