Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56591 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56591 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
“I agree,” Dom says passionately. He moves his hand toward me, as if to touch my leg, then stops himself. I picture the smiling woman on FaceTime, the happiness on her face.
I feel sick.
“Don’t make me ask,” Grandma says after a pause.
“Ma’am?”
“You know the question: the one we have to ask.”
Dom chuckles. “What are my intentions with Izzy?”
Grandma winks again, totally in her element. “Bingo.”
Dom looks at me, smiling tightly, a question in his eyes. Are you sure you’re okay? I turn away.
“I don’t want to rush anything,” Dom says. “But my intentions are good. I want a relationship with your granddaughter, ma’am—”
“Maggie, please.”
“Maggie,” Dom corrects. “But, like I said, I won’t push. I won’t rush. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
Until Aaron pushes too far. Until I’m forced to make an impossible choice.
“How wonderful,” Grandma says, slumping back against her pillow like the interaction has tired her out.
“Grandma?”
She smiles weakly at me. That’s when I realize she hasn’t been magically better this entire time. She’s just able to hide it from me, for a little while at least.
“I’m just tired,” she murmurs.
“We’ll let you get some rest,” I say, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she replies. “And you, Dominic, it was lovely to meet you. Do right by my girl.”
“Grandma,” I say. “It’s early days.”
“I will, Maggie,” Dom says, pressing on her hand before standing.
We go out to the car together. Dom climbs behind the wheel, though it’s my beat-up car. We didn’t even discuss who was going to drive this morning. He just slid smoothly behind the wheel as though it were his right.
“She seems like an incredible person,” Dom says. “Fierce, protective, caring. You’re lucky to have each other.”
“I know,” I murmur, looking out the window.
Do not cry.
“I’m glad she seemed to like me,” he goes on.
Don’t you dare cry.
“S-she definitely did,” I agree, staring stubbornly at the city as it passes by, the shadows still long, the sky gray turning to yellow.
When the first tear slides down my cheek, I quickly wipe it away, hoping Dom didn’t notice. But then he pulls over the car and cups my chin, directing my gaze to his.
“We need to talk about what you saw,” he says, his voice thick with emotion.
“You don’t owe me an explanation.”
“Maybe not,” he says gruffly, seeming more like his work persona than the Dom I’m getting to know. “But you’ve clearly got the wrong idea.”
“You hid your phone,” I mutter.
He nods. “I did. It’s an instinct, one I haven’t been able to shake for many years. The thing with me, Izzy, is that I loved my father more than anyone. I looked up to him more than I’ve ever looked up to anyone. And his voice is still with me, in my head all the time.”
“Really?” I ask.
“Not in an insane way… or maybe there’s more of that than I’d like to admit.” He laughs gruffly. Together, we look across the street at an employee preparing a café’s seating area. “But it’s not just that I hear his voice. It’s his presence, his memory. It never leaves me.”
“Okay…”
He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “My father loved my mother. I have to believe that. I saw them together. They danced all the time. He could always make her laugh. Even when Sebastian Goodfellow came along, and things got tough, they always had each other. But as he was dying, he told me something. Something that shattered how I saw him. But I can’t hate him, even if I hate what he did.”
I wait, my heart thundering, daring to believe there might be an explanation for this that won’t break me completely.
Dom turns to me, his expression bleak. “The woman you saw was my father’s mistress. The little boy, Liam, is his son.”
I gasp.
“On my father’s deathbed, he told me about Jennifer. He told me she’d had his baby. He told me I could never, ever share this with anyone because it would break my mother’s heart. And after Mom passed, I kept the secret. Out of habit, maybe, or perhaps my father’s word goes far beyond the grave. Jennifer hasn’t even told her current husband who the father is. That’s the kind of power my father commanded.”
“He’s your little brother,” I murmur.
Dom nods. “He’s a great kid. Funny, enthusiastic, happy. They have a great life. But every time I look at him… I hate what brought him into this world, cheating, Izzy. That’s one thing you’ll never have to worry about with me. No matter what, I’ll never cheat on you. I’d die before I did that.”
“You’re reminded of it,” I murmur, finishing his unfinished thought. “Every time you look at him.”
Dom sighs heavily. “Yeah, I am. And it’s sick, because it’s not his fault.”