Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
I could barely breathe, and I shifted, pushing out the confession toward the ceiling, “I have.”
A tremulous sound quivered from her lips, but this girl didn’t seem swayed. She just shifted onto her elbow, her brow twisted as her palm slid up to my cheek. “On purpose?”
I blinked through the sordid memories. “Sometimes you’re pushed against a wall so hard you have no choice but to fight back.”
She nodded like she understood. “You can’t blame yourself for that.”
My hand came to cover hers, and I met the intensity of her stare. “The only thing I feel guilty about is that I don’t regret it.”
“We all do what we have to in order to survive. I see it, Milo. It was survival.”
I clung to her hand as the hatred ran hot. “Working for Stefan was a trap.”
I needed her to understand what was on the line.
“I’d finally gotten out of that life, even though Stefan didn’t want to let me go. I didn’t hear from him for years, so I’d believed he was dead,” I continued. “Most likely chained and floating at the bottom of the ocean somewhere because that was the kind of life he led.”
My throat burned as I forced out the dread. “But I’m certain it was him who had me attacked. Had my windshield bashed in.”
Terror blanched through her defined features, though she tried to keep it under wraps. “What does he want?”
“I don’t know. Money. Revenge. To show me he owned me all along. We’d been close… I viewed him as a father figure at one time. He’d warned me I could never walk away from him…and when I did…”
Grief clamped off the confession, unable to let the words free.
I needed to tell her.
Shit, I needed to tell her.
But I couldn’t force it around the sickness that clawed through me, and instead, I was clinging tight to Tessa as I made a promise to her and myself. “I’m going to end it this time. He won’t get near you or my kids. Whatever it takes. Do you understand?”
She seemed to hear the threat in my words, and she was trembling when she shifted up higher so she was close to laying on top of me. Her pale skin was bare and sprinkled with that wash of freckles, her face so fuckin’ gorgeous as she gazed down at me.
She stole the breath right out of my lungs.
“I understand,” she promised.
My hand slipped up her back and over her shoulder so I could tuck her closer.
“This could get ugly,” I warned around the lump that sat like a stone in my throat.
She went to fluttering those fingertips over my face, red hair raining around her.
“It’s already ugly, Milo, and you’re still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
My head shook. “I’m afraid there’s not a whole lot of beauty here, Tessa.”
“You’re wrong. You are my beauty.” She slipped her fingers through my beard.
Soothing.
Encouraging.
“You are the one who filled up a place inside me that I never thought would be filled. You were there for me when I needed the support after I walked away from Karl. Terrified. But you helped me see through it that I needed to believe in myself. That I deserved more. And you’ve shown me more, Milo. Even when you were terrified to do it, you showed me what it was like to be cherished, just in the way you looked at me.”
Her fingers raked and her voice softened.
“In the way you were there for me. In the way you touched me.”
She shifted until she was fully hovering over me, all that red hair around her angel face. “You are your children’s beauty. Their hope. Where their hearts belong. And you have become mine, too.”
Her tongue stroked across her lips. “And no matter what you’ve done, Milo, you deserve redemption. Forgiveness. You deserve to be loved.”
You’ve got love, Dad.
Remy’s little voice filtered through my mind.
That feeling lifted and swelled.
Wasn’t sure I even wanted to fight it any longer. My fingers played through her hair as those blue eyes devoured me.
Pulled me closer.
Sucked me under.
“Never thought I’d see the sun rising again. Thought I’d live in this darkened eternity for the rest of my life,” I murmured.
She let go of an affected giggle, though her head tipped to the side in question.
The pad of my thumb ran the contour of her sharp jaw. “You are the light, Tessa. The warmth when every part of me had gone cold.”
Affection poured from her features, so sweet that my chest was going tight, and my heart was slugging out of time.
“And you sparked to life something inside me that I’ve never felt before,” she whispered. “I know what I really want for the first time.”
“And what is it you want?”
“I want to fight for my happiness. I want to keep building the Hope to Hands foundation and expand it so we can help more people. People like my brother who need long-term care. I want to respect myself for who I am and cherish the parts I’m still working on. I want a family so I can share this love that burns inside me. And I want my person to share it with.”