Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
I got to my feet. “Carry on as normal. I have to figure out what to do about this situation. I may ask for your help with her. For info about them. I dunno yet.”
She nodded. “I am very grateful to be a part of this family. I won the lottery as far as being a Kruna girl goes. I’m sorry for what I said about your brother. You’re right. I don’t know what happened. I just miss my husband. I know your father was a man with secrets, more secrets than any of us knew about. I also know that he loved you all and wanted you to be happy. He wasn’t perfect but family was so important to him. I guess he bought Felicia to make that happen for you. He told me he was worried about how cold your heart was after your engagement broke off. He was so happy that Tommy and Athena fell in love and wanted love for you, too. He got me away from there and made my life better. And I did my best to make him happy. You can do the same for her and she for you. You can give her a beautiful life the way your father gave one to me. You can have that too, be her winning lottery ticket, let her be the gift Tom intended and believe there was nothing underhanded about it.” She shrugged and put her hand protectively over her belly, which wasn’t even rounded yet.
Nothing underhanded? My father profited off the misery that Lisa, Felicia, and those other girls endured, for fuck’s sake. Fucking basement holes and torture rooms and fear and rape. Now I’d imagined Lisa and Felicia in those fucking solitary cells naked, cold, dirty, hungry, and fucking broken. And then I imagined my father sitting in those dining rooms and luxurious suites laughing and drinking and smoking a stogie like king of the fucking world with Lisa at his feet waiting for him to feed her table scraps.
Fuck.
“Let’s get you home,” I said through clenched teeth and we headed back to the car.
As we pulled up to the house she said, “Look at your brother. It doesn’t always start out right… but it can get there.”
I didn’t reply. I passed her the keys and watched her walk to the house. I texted Nino to ask him if he could swing by and give me a lift home. I video-called my brother from my phone. He didn’t answer.
As I was waiting it dawned that when I’d had dinner the last night at Kruna they’d said there would be “play” in the Townsend room. Lisa’s real name was Shayla Townsend. I decided to add Lisa’s details to the puzzle, to give the information to Zack and see if it helped him get us more information.
I’d gotten up, got dressed in a black pair of dress pants and a black blouse, put make-up on and flat ironed my hair. I was sitting on the terrace with a cup of coffee and the cashmere throw from the sofa over me. It was getting chilly. The leaves were starting to change color. I hadn’t dealt with cold weather in two years and while I’d spent the previous almost decade in the frigid frozen tundra, this was an adjustment.
I caught something from the corner of my eye. He was back. He was standing at the patio doors, leaning against the wall, staring at me. He was in jeans and a t-shirt and his hair was wet. He must’ve been back a while and showered.
His face looked hard, pissed. I swallowed past a lump in my throat and got to my feet. He opened the door for me and I went inside. He closed the door behind me. I gave him a tentative smile, but my eyes quickly darted toward my feet when the hard look on his face didn’t soften. I walked to the kitchen sink and rinsed my cup and then put it in the dishwasher. When I turned around, he was standing behind me, leaning against the island with his arms folded across his chest.
I stood still, eyes to the floor, waiting for him to address me.
“You straightened your hair,” he said finally.
I jolted. He’d told me at the resort that he preferred I didn’t but maybe I did it in an effort to behave myself. My hair was almost always straight at Kruna unless I was playing the naughty role. I pushed that thought away, avoiding the urge to analyze it, to think about anyone from there.
“Wanna go shopping?” he asked.
I was startled. That was not what I’d been expecting.
I lifted my chin, looked at him, and nodded.
“Then let’s go,” he said softly and went to the table by the door where his keys and phone were.