Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Alec pulled me down onto his lap. I straddled him, my hands resting on his shoulders. “It does hurt, and that won’t ever change. But remembering is what will stop me from becoming like them. Their actions made me want to be better.”
I pressed my forehead against his and closed my eyes. “Maybe. But sometimes I feel like a dog chasing its tail. Like I’m looking for something I can’t ever have, only I haven’t realized it yet,” I murmured.
Alec shook his head in disagreement.
“You’ll have your own family someday.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, but I knew it wasn’t the same as having loving parents and siblings. “Do you sometimes wonder what they’re doing now?”
“No, because I know they aren’t thinking about me either.”
“So you never think about contacting them again? Maybe they miss you.”
He didn’t reply right away and for a moment, I wondered if I shouldn’t have brought up this topic at all. “No. I can’t forgive them for what they did and I don’t want to. I don’t need them. I have the FEA and I have you.”
That was what I always tried to tell myself, too, but sometimes I wondered if I was only lying to myself.
A yawn slipped out of my mouth. “Time to sleep,” Alec said. He let himself fall back onto the bed and took me with him. I lay sprawled on top of him and let sleep wash over me, banishing my dark thoughts.
I knew it was only a matter of time until I had to face Kate. But when she knocked at my door the next day, I couldn’t do anything but stare at her, my fingers gripping the edge of the doorframe. She was only a few inches taller than me but always managed to make me feel small in more than one way. As usual, she was styled to perfection; blonde hair in a neat ponytail, dressed in black pants and a crisp white blouse. I was wearing gray sweatpants and a rumpled T-shirt.
“Oh, hi,” I said stupidly. Holly was doing laps in the swimming pool and I suddenly wished I’d gone with her to avoid this confrontation.
Kate’s face was carefully controlled, her coppery amber eyes unreadable. If she wanted to strangle me, she did a damn good job of hiding it. “We need to talk.” She glanced over my shoulder into the empty room. “Are you going to invite me in or not?”
I strongly leaned toward “or not,” but it would have been childish and I’d rather get the conversation over with. I stepped back and opened the door wide enough for her to enter.
Without another word, Kate strode inside and hovered in the middle of the room. Her eyes took in the Alien and Freddy Krueger posters hanging over my bed. She nodded smugly. “So that’s where Alec got his bad taste from.”
I bit back a snappy comment. She just wanted to get a rise out of me and I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. I stayed close to the door in case I had to make a quick escape. “Kate, I’m sorry for how things went down. I—”
“No, you’re not,” Kate interrupted me. “And don’t pretend otherwise. You’ve been pining for Alec for years and now you finally got what you wanted.”
“It’s true. But that doesn’t mean I’m not sorry for what you lost.”
“No.” She shook her head forcefully but not a single strand escaped her ponytail. My curls would have been all over the place. “Don’t you dare feel pity for me. I’m a big girl. I’m not crying myself to sleep because Alec left me. There are other fish in the ocean. Bigger fish.”
I was still holding the door handle. It wasn’t too late to throw Kate out. “Then why are you here?” I asked.
“Look, Tessa, I came here to warn you.”
I dropped my hand from its perch on the handle. “Warn me?”
A resentful smile flickered across her face. “I think you shouldn’t go into this… relationship with Alec blindly. You deserve to know the entire truth.”
“What truth?” I didn’t buy that Kate had come here to help me. She was here to drive a wedge between Alec and me. But she was wasting her time—nothing could shake my trust in Alec.
“Alec’s been lying to you from day one. He’s been manipulating you—”
I shook my head. “You’re just jealous that he left you for me. I don’t have to listen to your lies. I should have known that you’ve been planning this.”
“If you think I’m here because I’m jealous, you’re even more delusional than I thought,” Kate said with a sneer. “Tell me: in all the years you’ve known Alec, you’ve never felt that something was off, never had a twinge of suspicion?” She scanned my face and one corner of her mouth quirked up.
Anger slithered through my belly at her tone and words. What reason did I have to be suspicious of Alec? My fingers clutched the hem of my shirt. I wanted to claw at her. “I know Alec better than you, better than anyone.”