Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
"Yeah, maybe we can have lunch after everything is cleaned up." She nods behind her, and Blake helps me to sit up.
That's when I see my mother standing back a good ten feet, her face white and not because of the alley light beaming down on her. If she knew she was standing in such bad lighting, she'd be moving her ass, so she must really be shocked.
Then I take note of my father groaning. Mother finally moves, rushing over to help him sit up. Blood drips from his nose and left eyebrow.
"You got into a fist fight with my father?" I ask, touching the mark on his face. The sounds of the sirens grow closer.
"Yes, but this isn't from him."
"My mother?" I gasp, in shock.
"If I wasn't so pissed, I'd laugh." Oh, I guess it’s not from my mom. Lauren's fiancée motions with her eyes for me, and that's when I see two other men, all in black, on the ground. I recognize one of them from my father's security detail. He didn't use them often, and I thought when he did, it was for show. I suppose I was right because they were useless.
"You did that?" Blake gives a stiff nod. "Kind of hot," I whisper and then slam my hand over my mouth. Lauren’s fiancée giggles.
"Just let one of those intrusive thoughts right out." She's not wrong.
"You stay with me, got it?"
"Of course." Blake helps me out of the vehicle as the police come running up on us.
Everything from there is a whirlwind. I get checked out in one of the ambulances they tried to load one of the security men into, but Blake lost his shit, saying I was going first. I'm actually fine, and the EMT lets me know my blood pressure is a tad low and is likely part of why I passed out, along with the stress.
I expect to have to talk to the police, but Lauren and Blake handle it, and Emma, Lauren's fiancée, hangs out with me the whole time. I find out she's from a very prominent family too. We have a lot of friends in common, and I bet these two are going to be my favorite couple friends.
I'm not sure where the mayor came from, but I watch as he speaks with Lauren and Blake.
"It's hot to watch them in action, isn't it?" Emma lets out a dreamy sigh, making me laugh. "You okay, though?" she asks after a beat. "I mean, I know our parents in this elite social world can be crazy, but yours are really taking the cake."
"Yes, I'm okay." Is this how I would have loved for all this to play out? No, but I don't think there was another option. My parents were never going to admit their mistakes, and if they did, it would be to a very small faction.
This way, I get to see the truth fully. I can't dress it up or hope they'll be better. It's a clean cut, and that's what I tell Blake when we finally get to head home.
"Are you sure you're okay with fully cutting them off?" He gives my hand a squeeze, and while he might dislike the idea of me wanting to maintain a relationship with them, I know he will support my decision. I'm sure that way would include heavy security detail, but he'd do it, nonetheless. That's Blake, though; the man does whatever he can to make me happy.
He's shown me that since we laid everything bare. Scratch that; once I saw all he'd done for us while I was away at school and even before then, I realized he was always doing that: looking out for us and our future together. He hadn't wanted to let me go back then but told himself it was for only a couple years and he'd have me in the end. Blake believed I wanted to go off to school, and that's why he'd accepted it.
"Yes, I'm not going to have contact with anyone who would try to poison my mind when it comes to my husband."
"What did they try to tell you?"
"Tried to tell me it was all an act. That you had no plans of getting out. You were trying to get me pregnant so that I was stuck." Blake closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "That you only married me because your grandfather wanted it." I continue filling him in on all the lies my parents had tried to fill my head with. Blake’s eyes snap open.
"Not everything they said is wrong," he tells me. "I do want to get you pregnant, and my grandfather did want us to marry one day."
"So you're saying he liked me," I tease, which makes him relax a fraction but not much.
"He loved how I spoke of you." A wry smile forms. "I think he knew before I did. I mean, I knew, but I didn't understand when I was younger."