Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
“You are a disgrace, a disappointment. I should have just gone to the clinic and gotten rid of you. You are worse than your siblings, you ungrateful, spoiled bitch.”
Fighting off dizziness, I twisted my hips as hard as I could, trying to throw her off of me. It didn’t work as well as I wanted it to, but I was at least able to knock her off balance and scramble to my feet. My face stung and I could feel the blood dripping down my neck.
She was going to come at me again, and I needed to defend myself. I backed away from her until I hit one of the antique tables in the entryway. I reached for anything I could find. My fingers wrapped around the cold metal of a sword-shaped letter opener.
“What do you think you’re going to do with that?” she said, eyeing what I held.
“You will not come near me again,” I warned, holding the Tiffany letter opener in front of me. My hands shook, the sterling silver of the blade gleaming where it caught the overhead light.
“There’s not a single thing in this world that’ll stop me.” She took a step toward me, and the surrounding room seem to tilt. My eyelids felt so damn heavy, but I needed to stay awake. I needed to stay focused. This needed to end. Despite her actions, I didn’t want to hurt her. I didn’t know if I had it in me to hurt her, even if she attacked me again. The only thing I wanted was for her to know I was no longer hers to control. My silence would be the price of my freedom.
All she had to do was not stand in my way.
“I’m leaving. You can’t stop me,” I said, my voice trembling. “You have no more control over me. Tell people whatever you want, I don’t care. I’m no longer yours to control and use. I will never be used the way you used me again.”
She started to lunge at me again, but then the butler, the butler who was her favored minion, grabbed her hand, stopping the strike.
“What do you think you’re doing? Unhand me!”
“What my employer has paid me handsomely to do, madam,” he replied. “You are to never lay a hand on the youngest Miss Astrid again.”
Several others on the staff hurried into the room and stood between me and her, their arms intertwined, locking together like a chain.
She glared at all of them.
“I am your employer, and you will move.”
“That is no longer true, madam. Mister Astrid is the one that signs our checks, and he has us under strict guidelines when it comes to your more violent tendencies.”
I leaned against the wall, not sure I could keep myself upright much longer. Everything hurt, and my body felt so heavy.
Still, my father had finally stepped in and stopped her.
I always assumed he knew what went on here, but maybe he didn’t. Or maybe he was trapped just as much as the rest of us were. Maybe he had found his own way out.
“You’re all lucky I’m late for an appointment. All of you should consider yourselves unemployed at this very second. When I get back, every single one of you had better be out of my house, and do not try to use me as a reference,” she spat. “And you, you ungrateful little bitch. You had better be here waiting for me, ready to grovel, and so help me God, if you do not return every single file that was taken, and the money that you stole, I will have you arrested. I will have you thrown into the darkest, deepest hole and you will live there the rest of your life. You think I’m mean? Wait until you meet your cellmates.”
She spun on her heel and walked out the front door, slamming it behind her. That’s when my legs finally gave way, and I slid down the wall to the tile floor.
“What do we do?” a maid asked. “Do we call 911 for an ambulance or—”
“Call my dad. Please.”
CHAPTER 32
THOMAS
It was time.
Finally, it was all going to be over. After leaving Declan in the bar, I had run back to the church, deciding that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right.
Mary Quinn was going to know that I was responsible for this. She would know that I could only do this because of the monster that she forced me to become.
I changed into the black suit that I wore for mass and made sure my priest collar was tight around my neck, before I showed up at the medical spa. When Declan told me this was where it was going to happen, I was surprised. It didn’t seem like his style, but I guessed that was the point.