Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Sound is the first sense to return, my ragged breaths in my ears a grating noise that makes me want to scream.
“Sylvie?”
Warm, damp hands cup my face, but my eyes are locked on the spot where Will was just seconds ago.
I blink, finding Spade standing right in front of me, his skin covered in dirt and grime from his tussle with Will.
I press my hands against his chest when he tries to pull me closer, the red marring his chest making my stomach turn.
He looks down, noticing the blood on his forearms.
“It’s not mine,” he says, but that just makes it worse.
I want no part of Will touching me.
He must understand because he takes a step back.
“Need me to stick around?” a female voice asks.
“I’ve got it,” Spade hisses without pulling his eyes from me.
“I think she needs—”
“I’ve got everything she needs,” he snaps before urging me to turn around and reenter my house.
Nothing seems familiar. Nothing in this room is comforting.
In minutes, my home has transitioned into a place I no longer feel welcome.
Unbeknownst to Big Daddy and I, most of my life has been a lie. The truth doesn’t help.
Will was right, and I know the answer to his last question.
No, my mother wouldn’t still love me or her father if she were alive and knew we’d given up on her so easily.
The truth is a shotgun blast right through the middle of me.
A warm palm urges my face up, a thumb swiping at tears I didn’t even know were running down my cheek.
His throat works on a swallow, and I expect him to say something stupid like everything will be okay, but he kisses me instead.
It isn’t an impassioned kiss, just a brush of his lips on mine. I’m sure under different circumstances it would have the power to fix all that was broken inside of me, but it barely registers.
He’s frowning when he pulls back.
“I’m going to go grab a quick shower. The guys are still outside. You’re safe.”
I nod, a reflex in a bid to get him to give me some space, but when he steps away, I’m left feeling anything but safe.
Physically, I know no harm will come to me, but my head is a mess.
I dress, quickly changing out of my robe because I feel like I need an extra layer of protection, but it does nothing to warm the ice that’s settling inside of me.
My mind filters through every memory I have of my mother, and I don’t know what’s true and what I created in my head to try and hold on to a woman that should’ve been in my life.
There’s a flashing of her smile and the way her hair looked blowing in the breeze, but all of that could’ve been fabricated by the mind of a little girl who felt love but also knew she was missing something. I was so young when she left.
My chin trembles as I shove down hope. Will never said that she was dead, but the chances that she’s still alive are impossible. Deep down I know that.
My mother was abducted and killed. My grandfather was right. She cherished that necklace, but she cherished me more. If she had a chance to come back to me, she would have.
My mother has always been gone.
She never gave up on me.
We failed her.
I failed her.
Chapter 32
Spade
I take the quickest shower known to man, and I hate that Sylvie is left alone for any length of time.
I rushed in here in a bid to get back to her so quickly, I didn’t even grab clothes to change into, leaving me reentering her bedroom with a towel wrapped around my hips and water still on my skin.
She’s no longer in her robe, rather she’s sitting on the end of her bed, staring off into the distance fully dressed.
There’s an eerie sense of calm to the way she’s sitting with her hands clasped in her lap. Tears that marked her cheeks when I left her just minutes ago are nowhere to be found.
Her face is still red and puffy from the trauma she experienced tonight, but the wetness is gone.
I walk closer, approaching her the same way I would a terrified animal. Her reaction is normal. It’s the calmness before everything sinks in, and I hate all of this for her.
The lasting effect of tonight is going to have nothing to do with a man she knows holding her at knifepoint.
If it weren’t for the necklace that Will showed her, I’d try and convince her that he was lying, but I figured out what he was talking about quickly enough.
Her mother didn’t walk away from her when she was young. She was abducted, probably went through more pain and suffering than most normal people can imagine before she was deemed useless and murdered.