Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 159420 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 531(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159420 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 531(@300wpm)
Which is when he started to suspect that our father might be lying about other things. Such as that we have a neglectful mother who’s always traveling and shopping, when in reality she’s been shut up in one of our father’s cabins, in a catatonic state. Or that I was following in our mom’s footstep, when in reality I was living my life in fear of pissing off our dad who may or may not murder our mom. Since I was easier to get in touch with—because he hasn’t spoken to Mom in years, thinking she’s been holed up somewhere in Europe—he started with me first.
But even he couldn’t have guessed the extent of our father’s monstrous acts. Not only what he did to our mom but also his hand in recent activities. Which is why, Breck told me, it took him so long to figure out who was behind all this. He was looking in the wrong direction, he said. He was trying to look for our father’s enemies when it was our father himself, and his new friend Joshua Anderson—the California surfer guy—who were behind all this. And if it wasn’t for… him, the man I’m not going to think about, he never would’ve thought to look at our dad’s phone records. Which is how they found out he’d been calling one particular phone number a lot these past months, Anderson’s. Plus, his bank statements, which first led through all the dummy accounts before finally nailing down who those men were, the ones at the warehouse, and also the ones who took me. They all were small-time criminals or ran with the local gangs and our father had recently wired them money, presumably to kidnap me, confirming he had a hand in everything. When they tried to track my father down to get answers, though, they realized no one could reach him. The last time anyone saw him was several hours before when he’d left for his regular speech therapy appointment but, apparently, never made it. They knew that either something had seriously gone wrong or whatever it was he’d planned was going down. And then they got the ransom call. The call about the land and how Lynnie and I were being held hostage for it; the deal Anderson had been talking about. After that, it was a matter of figuring out where they’d been holding us. Breck went through all our property records, and together with the Graysons and him, they figured out where we were by the process of elimination. That Lakelyn and I were held captive at the same location was a matter of coincidence, but I’m not going to question our good luck.
I will, however, put a stop to this. To my brother’s guilt because it’s not really his fault; he assumed things about me and Mom. I did the same. “You know what, we could either be angry about what we’ve lost or be thankful that we finally found out the truth. And I…” I take a deep breath as he turns to face me, his features hard. “I want to be thankful. I want to be grateful that I have a brother. A brother who cares. That was the worst part, Breck. I thought you didn’t care. I thought you were… like him. That I was alone and I was surrounded by men who were…”
“I’m not like him,” he says fiercely, his blue eyes shining. “And you aren’t alone. You never will be.”
Another pang hits my chest, and I blink my eyes to get rid of the moisture. “So I don’t want you to blame yourself. I want us to be… to be a family.”
Something I never had. Something I didn’t even think I wanted in the first place. I’ve always been so busy being afraid, trying to protect Mom, trying to do whatever Dad told me to, that like many other things in my life, I never imagined being part of a family. But I want that now. I want us to be a family, my brother and I.
Our mom too. Breck is having Mom brought back to the house tomorrow so she can live with us. No more living up in the mountains away from her home. Granted, this home gave her more pain than love, but we can change that now. She won’t know it, not really, since she isn’t really aware of anything, but even so, I want her to have this one thing. Her freedom. Finally. After years and years of being Dad’s prisoner. And I want her to have her kids around her even though she wasn’t really close with us.
Which is why I’ve decided to spend my summer at the ranch. Not only so I can spend time with Breck and Mom, but also because I loved living at Rawhide and then at… his ranch. I loved being able to garden, to grow things; loved being involved in the day-to-day of a ranch, and so maybe I can learn to love Wildfire too. Because I realize I do have a love for the land, but only if it comes with peace, not war. As for college, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go back come fall or maybe not. But for now, I want to live in the moment. I want to live free and without fear.