Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Annabelle wipes at her cheek as though expecting tears there, though there are none.
“And to answer your earlier question,” I say, “I don’t think this feeling is going to fade. In fact, I know it’s not. But let’s say it somehow did for the sake of argument. Let’s say I married your daughter one day – with your blessing – and then we both stopped being obsessed with each other.
“I can’t speak for Freya, but I know what I’d do. I’d work on the relationship. I’d focus on being the best parents we could be. I wouldn’t quit on us, ever.”
“Neither would I,” Freya says passionately. “I want this, Mom. Want him. Want us. A life, family, children…all of it. Why wait if we’re sure now? If we know. I don’t think many people have ever known love like this…except you and Dad, maybe.”
Annabelle smiles, nodding, even as her eyes glisten.
“Yes, yes, it’s true. We only knew each other for a month before we were engaged. But a month and a few days are very different things. Freya, you’re young. In many ways, you’re mature. But you’re still young. Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I’m more sure about this than anything in my entire life,” she says, making my heart glow, stirring things in me I never would’ve believed before I met my woman.
“I love your daughter, Mrs. Abrams,” I say when she turns to me. “I promise that, whatever happens, I’ll always protect her. I’ll always encourage her to follow her passions. I’ll always respect her.”
“What about your…work?”
I bite down, thinking of the three men. Evil, deserving, and yet I carried out Mr. Red’s bidding all the same. At least I verified his claims about them myself. There’s no way to fake some of the stuff those monsters did.
“I was going to head up the East Coast division of Kenny’s security firm before this started. He’s been asking me for years after I left the military…but then everything with Yasmin happened. I’m not a hitman, Mrs. Abrams, not anymore.”
“He was forced to be, for a little while,” Freya says. “But it’s not who he is.”
After a pause, Annabelle says, “Felix, I’d like to speak with you alone if you don’t mind.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
ONE MONTH LATER
Freya
“Yippee!” Felicia beams as Julie pushes her on the swing.
The sun was shining down in the park, children were laughing, and people were walking their dogs.
It’s been a month since we told my mom, and she’s given us her blessing…though I still don’t know what she and Felix talked about when she asked me to leave.
Once I returned to the room, both of them were smiling.
“I want you to be happy,” Mom said. “And I won’t stand in your way.”
I haven’t asked Felix what they discussed. I sense I’m not supposed to know, even if it sends my mind into whirring what-the-heck-is-going-on mode.
“Is it pointless to ask what you’re thinking about?” Yasmin asks from beside me.
I turn, smiling at – I hope – my future sister-in-law. Felix and I have been talking about our wedding a lot this past month.
We talk about it after we make love, lying there with his hand resting on my belly as though beckoning to the future life.
We talk about it over breakfast or when we’re supposed to be watching a movie. We both want at least three children, preferably four or five…though I haven’t had any luck there yet. We want the same thing.
We want a marriage.
So why hasn’t he proposed?
“No,” I say after a pause, my thoughts rioting, making it difficult to focus.
“You don’t have to worry,” Yasmin tells me, placing her hand on mine. “Everything’s going to be great. I just know it.”
“Everything is great,” I tell her, looking over at Julie.
She beams as she pushes Felicia on the swing, the sun shining in her blonde hair, looking so much like her old self I want to weep. These past few weeks have been kind to her. She can now heal without the secret and the threat of Mike-Deacon-Mr. Red hanging over her.
I think of mom, too, how her approval has grown fiercer and fiercer as the weeks have gone on. She didn’t even argue when, two weeks ago, I told her I was moving into Felix’s apartment with him.
I’ve managed to find a tattoo studio willing to offer me an internship, and Felix is busy building up Kenny’s small East Coast division into something truly impressive.
Felix told me the other night that the police who attacked our house are under investigation, as well as six other officers, all of whom were working with the man who was going to kill me or have me killed for the crime of being Julie’s best friend and keeping her away from him.
“Then it’s going to get even better,” Yasmin says. “Just you wait.”