Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 57257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“Elle, I mentioned it last night. And I’m sorry. I know you want to pretend—”
Her chair screeches as she pushes it back. She glares at me. “Okay, okay, big deal. You read about what happened to me. There. Band-Aid off. Can we just move on with our lives now? It’s not a big deal.”
“It’s more than that.”
Mira is staring at me, looking far older than she is, vigorously shaking her head. Elle notices, turns, then turns back to me. She does a double take, then a triple take.
“Do you know?” She asks Mira.
“It’s nothing,” Mira says. “You don’t want to know, Sissy.”
“Now I have to,” Elle snaps, turning back to me.
“Sissy—”
“Tell me, then,” Elle says. “If you’re so determined to live in the real world.”
“I was there that night,” I spit out. She drops into her seat. “I was the police officer who carried Mira from the scene, and I saw you, briefly. I saw what happened to your parents. I responded to the call, but it wasn’t my case.”
She wraps her arms around her middle, shaking her head.
“Why!” Mira leaps from her chair. “Now look what you’ve done!”
“I’m fine,” Elle says, staring off into space with a shellshocked expression. A ghost of a smile touches her lips. “It’s funny, you know. Meet a guy, have some fun, let yourself, ha-ha, believe, and then it all comes rushing back.”
“Sissy, he’s still… Rhett.” Mira’s shoulders slump.
“Elle, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” I say. “Mira remembered me and I—”
“He wanted to tell you!” Mira yells. “I told him not to, Sissy.”
“None of that matters,” I cut in. “What matters is that I knew, and I said nothing.”
“Why?” Elle looks up at me. “The first day, the first time we talked, why didn’t you just say anything?”
“I guess I wanted you to forget. To pretend.”
Elle laughs hollowly. “I liked pretending. I can’t lie about that. But I also feel like I might be sick, so I’m not really sure what part to focus on.”
I sit, reach my hand across the table, then draw it back when I realize she won’t take it. Would holding her hand even be a good idea now? Mira twists her hands together, eyes glassy.
“There’s something else,” I say quietly. “You deserve the full truth.”
“What now?” Elle says tiredly.
I almost don’t want to tell her. The look in her eyes is too tragic, too exhausted. It’s like she just wants a break from the bleakness of life… and she deserves one.
“I don’t think we should discuss it in front of Mira,” I say. “It’s your decision if you want to tell her after, but—”
“I can hear what Sissy hears!” Mira snaps.
Elle chews her lip, looks at her sister, then looks back at me. “Really?”
“I think it’s best all around.”
It’s bad enough I have to terrify Elle out of her mind. I don’t want to traumatize the child too.
“Mira, go to your room,” Elle says.
“But—”
“Now, please,” Elle says sternly.
Mira huffs and grabs the back of a chair. For a second, it looks like she’s going to tip it. But suddenly she stuffs her thumb in her mouth and stomps out of the hallway. Elle lets out a broken sigh as she watches her go.
“Great,” she says with bitter sarcasm. “Now she’s regressing. How wonderful.”
“I’m sorry, Elle.”
“Me too,” she murmurs. “I’m being a bitch.”
“You have every right to be—”
“A bitch?”
“I’d never call you that,” I grunt.
“I love her,” Elle whispers. “And I love how much you’ve helped her. But I don’t think things will be the same now.”
“No, probably not,” I agree somberly.
“So, tell me, then,” Elle says. “What’s the second half of this crap sundae?”
I wish there was a way around this. But I can’t keep hiding the truth from her.
Fuck, fuck, fuck…
I don’t want to do this.
“Rhett, stop delaying,” she sighs.
“Lucian has escaped from prison.”
CHAPTER 14
ELARA
Ionce read in a book, it was like she spoke in a foreign language. The news was so shocking to me. The line stood out because I remember thinking that there’s no way that words could literally not make sense because of shock.
But now I get it. He’s just told me that Lucian is out. But it’s also just like he spit gibberish.
I squeeze the edge of the table, lean back in my chair, and look over my shoulder to make sure Mira didn’t sneak back out here to eavesdrop. “How?” I whisper.
“He paid a guard to loosen his cuffs, staged an attack during a prison transfer, probably arranged for the transfer too.”
“Wuh-when?” I clear my throat, annoyed at the stutter.
“Day before yesterday.”
“So that could’ve been him yesterday?”
Rhett stares at me, this gentle giant who carried Mira from her hell, who kissed me, touched me, set me alight. And then broke me into a million pieces. Okay, that’s a little dramatic, but I think I’ve earned a little drama.