Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Shifting uncomfortably, I tried to unclench my fist from around my fork. Never, not once, had I been inclined to google it. Mum’s stepmum hiring Nathan Andros to kill Mum for her inheritance wasn’t ordinary news. Especially because my maternal grandfather had been a wealthy attorney to Hollywood stars. The trauma we’d experienced was played out as entertainment in the news, and I remembered the paparazzi arriving in Ardnoch to hound us.
Thankfully, the furor around the family drama had died down. It flared up again a year or so later when Mum’s stepmum’s and Nathan’s trials started. They were both sentenced to life in prison, the former for conspiracy to commit murder, the latter for kidnap, assault, and attempted murder.
Once all that circus died down, I’d never wanted to deal with it again. I hadn’t googled it ever. In fact, I liked to imagine that our story didn’t exist for strangers to read.
Harry reminded me that it was out there. Anyone who was anyone could read my story. One saving grace was that most of the articles had our names as Sloane and Callie Harrow. Anyone who’d entered our lives in the last fourteen years wouldn’t think to google that name.
Harry finally looked up, and tears gleamed in his eyes. “The articles on the trial talked about what he did to you and Mum.”
“What happened to the parental controls?” Mum asked Dad.
He grimaced. “They’re not set for stuff like that.”
“It’s fine. I can handle it.” Harry jutted his chin defiantly. “And now I know how bad I messed up. Okay? I shouldn’t have said what I said. I shouldn’t have taken what Greg and Axel were doing to me out on you. I’m sorry.”
I knew how much it must have taken for him to say that. Reaching across the table, I smoothed a hand down his arm. “Harry, I really appreciate that. And I forgive you.”
“So you’ll stay?”
I gave him an affectionate smile. “I’m twenty-five, kiddo. I really do need a place of my own. But I’ll still be around all the time. So much, you’ll be sick of me.”
Before Harry could respond to that, our doorbell rang.
Dad excused himself, saying he’d get it.
“It was nice of Arro to offer,” Mum said.
I nodded. “Can you imagine me back at the cottage? Full circle, eh?”
Mum smiled, a lingering sadness in it. “Without me, though.”
“Mum.”
“I’m sorry. I know it’s time for you to get your own place. You were in Paris for three years alone, for goodness’ sake. It’s just … strange that you’ll be here but not here.”
“Does that mean I can have your room?” Harry suddenly inquired, head cocked in thought. “It is bigger than mine.”
Laughing, I replied, “You got over me moving out quickly enough.”
“Wee yin …”
Turning in my chair toward Dad, I froze in shock at the person who stood beside him in our living room.
“Gabriel?”
It was so weird seeing Gabriel in my childhood bedroom.
Gabriel may have been shorter than some men who shall remain nameless, but he had a magnetism that made him seem larger than life. He was very masculine in my girlish room. It was still decorated in the pink wallpaper I’d chosen as a teen. Gabriel rested his arms behind him on my bed, seeming at ease as he took in his surroundings.
Handsome as hell, with light brown hair, sea-green eyes, a cut jawline, and a brooding mouth, it stunned me that at that moment, he didn’t do anything for me. We’d had great sex and I’d found him attractive (obviously), but I realized that I was completely shut down when it came to the opposite sex. I didn’t want to contemplate why.
It would make me angry and hurt all over again.
Gabriel’s attention returned to where I sat in my armchair in the corner of the room. “You look beautiful,” he said in his gorgeous accent, his smile tender.
“You too,” I replied.
“Merci. I think.”
I smiled, but I was certain it didn’t reach my eyes.
He frowned. “Something is wrong. Is it me? Are you angry I showed up?”
“No. I mean, you said you might in your postcard, but I hadn’t really expected you to. Why come all this way?” Considering how relieved he’d seemed when I ended things, I never thought I’d see him again.
Gabriel nodded and sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Like I said on the card, I took a break. I needed it. I’m traveling for a few months so I can decide if I want to remain in la police.”
My suspicions about his job might have been correct then. “Too stressful?”
“Something like that.”
“Where are you traveling?”
“Here.” He grinned. “And London, of course. Perhaps America. I am seeing how it goes. Unplanned.”
“Exciting.”
“Oui. It would be very exciting if you came with me, but I know you will not.”
I was surprised he’d even want me along for the ride. As tempting as running away was, despite how shitty I’d felt in Ardnoch these past few weeks, I wouldn’t be chased from my family. “I’m where I’m supposed to be.”