Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
“Luther!” Linc barked my name, but I didn’t stop. I kept going.
Ten
Lace
I heard the voices before I reached the great room. They were all masculine. My body tensed as my heart rate picked up, and I stopped in the hallway. The instinct to turn and run back to the room I’d slept in last night was immediate. But why? What was it about those voices that frightened me?
Since I’d woken up without any knowledge of my life or who I was, every man I had met was civil. Linc hadn’t exactly been nice, but the others had been. This was Luther’s home, and he wouldn’t let someone inside that would hurt me. At least, I didn’t think he would.
What did I really know about him anyway? Or me?
Wringing my hands together tightly, I wanted the safety of the room I had just left. I wasn’t going to be able to go any further. No matter what I told myself, there was a flight reaction to the masculine voices that was stronger than my reasoning.
“Dalia,” Luther called out, and I turned to look at him.
“Yes,” I replied as our eyes met, and then I froze.
A rush came over me, and I reached out to place a hand on the wall closest to me as the world felt like it was off-balance. My stomach began to turn violently, and I feared I was about to vomit on the spot.
God, please don’t let me do that.
But when had God ever heard me? Not the day my momma had drowned and…
My momma.
The memory felt like a boulder slamming hard against my chest, and I let out a pained wail. She was gone. She’d been gone. I…I’d dreamed of her last night.
Strong hands clamped around my arms, but I couldn’t focus. Too much was opening up, racing through my head. My life, all that I’d forgotten.
Again, my stomach rolled painfully.
Arun would kill me. Especially now. And my father would allow it. If I wasn’t his pawn, I was nothing to him.
I had to find a way to escape here. Leave before I brought the danger that Linc feared close to his family. Oh God. I had to go. But how did I get away?
“Slow, deep breaths,” Luther said, reminding me that he was behind me.
He was possibly the only reason I was still standing. If left on my own, I was sure my knees would have buckled by now.
I shook my head. I had no time for slow breathing and calming down. He had no idea the danger he was in by my being here. He’d saved me. He…he was the only person in my life to ever care about my well-being. My chest ached at the loss of that. The brief taste of someone being there to stand up for me. To take care of me. It would end today. Now. I had to go.
“I-I ne-need to leave.” I stammered out the words.
“You remember who you are?” he asked.
I was reluctant to admit that, but he deserved the truth. I had to tell him who I was and that he had to let me leave in order to protect him and everyone in this house. I had…
Wait. I turned to look at him, stepping back out of his hold on me. He released me, watching me, as if he was trying to read all the memories I had on my face.
He’d called me Dalia. The name my father called me.
I placed a hand on my stomach, willing it to settle. There was no time to be ill.
“You said my…” I paused because I hated that name. I hated being called by that name.
“Your name,” he finished.
I nodded, although everything in my body screamed against it.
“It’s you then. You’re Dalia Halsten, the Texas oil heiress.” He didn’t sound disgusted, but it did seem almost mocking.
A hard, sharp laugh left my lips at that description. Heiress—such a funny word. One that didn’t fit me at all. Just as the name Dalia didn’t. Yet it was who I had been forced to become. The name my father had chosen, the one he loved.
“Yes,” I whispered, hating the lie the word stood for. But the truth was one I could never tell. Especially to him.
He didn’t deserve my father’s wrath. He was innocent.
“I have to leave. I can’t stay here.”
His brows drew together. “You want to go back to the bastard? He did this to you, didn’t he? Is his money that important to you? Is that it?”
I stared at him as he snarled the words. Was he talking about my father? Or did he know about Arun too? If he did, surely, he knew about the power the two of them wielded together. I was sure this place had an excellent security system, but that wouldn’t stop either of them from collecting me when they found me. And they would.