 by Max Walker.jpg)
Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
I never thought I’d see him again.
We ended things on a horrible note, and it was all my fault. So when I bump into Colton at a local coffee shop, I’m convinced it’s some kind of prank.
But it wasn’t. Colton was back in town, and he needed help. His mom was killed in a burglary gone wrong, and he’s convinced there’s more to the story.
He’s also convinced I’m the only one who could help him. It would require being fake boyfriends and going with him to his family retreat, but at least we had some real experience being together.
Shouldn’t be too hard, right?
Colton Cooper-
I always wondered if we’d meet again.
Eric was my first love. Even though we had to keep it a secret, he had held my entire heart.
And ended up breaking it.
But when I see him again after all these years, those feelings come rushing back. Along with an idea.
Eric had a lot to make up for. So the least he could do was fly with me to the South of France and try to figure out who in my family was responsible for my mom’s death.
I just hoped history didn’t repeat itself.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
COLTON COOPER
The sound of a shattering champagne glass mixed with an ear-splitting cry. Time seemed to still. Paused, as if someone had pressed a button on the remote. The air in the spacious living room grew as heavy as lead, sinking into my lungs. It mixed with the adrenaline and elation that came from solving the case.
But at what cost?
Eric looked at me, big brown eyes swirling with a storm of pain. I wanted to reach out, grab his hand in mine. I wanted him to tell me that it would be okay. That the plan worked. It was all worth it… or was it? Did I just lose more than I’d gained?
That’s when my brother spoke, breaking the thick silence. “I didn’t do it. I didn’t kill my mother.”
Archie’s voice was hoarse, his throat likely constricting with the panic that no doubt flooded through him. Jen, my sister, held back tears, a shaking hand covering her mouth.
My entire body felt like it had been struck by lightning. Every single cell in my body was fried from the shock.
Eric had laid it all out for us. He’d listed the exact reasons why my brother would be motivated to end our mother’s life. It all made a twisted, sick kind of sense. I didn’t want to believe a single word of what Eric was saying, but deep down, I knew he only spoke facts.
“You don’t even belong here, on this trip.” My brother advanced toward Eric, pushing aside the love seat that his wife sat on as if it were made of paper. She shouted again, grabbing onto the armrests. I’d never seen my brother this angry before, his face a cherry red and his hands forming tight fists. “You and Colton concocted this entire plan to, what, frame me? Do you want me off the will, Colton? More money for you and your fake boyfriend? Huh? Eric, do you get a cut?”
My eyes opened wide, as if my little brother had slapped me across the face. I shook my head, trying to process it all. My dad was dead silent as he stood by the window, watching us all as if he was seeing us for the first time in his entire life.
“Eric and I are…” I looked at him. The man I loved. The man I used to love. The man I’d brought here under fake pretenses, the man I’d been unable to deny real feelings for.
Was I losing him tonight, too?
“Colton brought me here as a detective, first and foremost. Yes. Our relationship was fake, but the information I uncovered is all real, and I wouldn’t have found any of it if I didn’t act the part with Colt,” Eric said, speaking the truth and stabbing me directly in the chest while he did it.
Shit… That hurt. Maybe it was because emotions were already sky-fucking-high, but hearing Eric say that he came here just as a detective made my chest tighten even more than it already was. Like an invisible boa constrictor was intent on squeezing every last molecule of air I held in my lungs. I looked out the window at the dark and cloudless sky, wondering how the hell this trip had turned tits up in a matter of minutes. And was it all my fault? Should I have left it all alone? Should I have never invited Eric? Never have come up with this wild plan in the first place? I could see now that all the roads led to heartbreak. Each and every single one of them.
Because, no matter what, at the end of the day, my mom was still dead, and my “fake boyfriend” was now accusing one of my brothers of her murder.
How did that not amount to heartbreak of the worst kind?
“This is fucking crazy,” Kendall said, pushing past my grandma, who looked like she was two seconds away from passing out onto her girlfriend. “We’re standing here, dressed like fucking Clue characters, talking about Archie like he could hurt a fly, much less our own mother. Do you see how ridiculous that sounds?”
Eric took out his phone, opening it to a video that took up his entire screen.
“What is that?” Archie asked, trying to snatch the phone from Eric’s hand but proving to be too slow.
“It’s proof of your involvement in Amelia’s death.”
The room fell into a pit of silence and dread. Eric turned to me, that teddy-bear look of his twisted in pain. “Do you want to stay here for this?” he asked me.
I nodded, unable to speak.
Eric pressed Play, and the sounds of my mom being strangled to death filled the room, making me regret my decision to stay, along with every single fucking decision in my life that had led me up to this nightmare come true.
2
COLTON COOPER