Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
I stalled out in the middle of it, my attention pinned on the glass that separated me from the outside.
A gust of wind blew through, and a chill skated down my spine.
I swore that I discerned something different in the air.
Something vile and wicked.
That thing that had been chasing me for months.
I shook off the shiver and forced myself to move. My bare feet padded quietly against the wood floor as I rushed into the spare bathroom. I shut the door, my hand on the handle, my spirit tugging me back in the direction of the man I could feel in the middle of the turmoil.
Coming closer and closer.
The energy he emitted.
A tether that keened and pulled.
It swelled and amplified, and my breaths turned shallow when I heard the faint thud of footsteps coming down the hall.
They stopped in front of the bathroom door.
His presence overwhelming.
He remained there for the longest time. The moment stretching on forever.
Hesitation billowed before I felt him pull away and he continued down the hall to the room that was off-limits at the end.
Soft beeps echoed from the keypad outside it, and I listened as it was opened then latched shut behind him.
I slumped forward when it closed.
The connection broken.
I forced myself to finish drying off and redressed, then I carefully opened the door and tiptoed to the children’s room.
I peered in at their sleeping forms.
Stood in the goodness they emitted.
My mind traveled back in time, wondering how I’d ended up here. How I’d been given the greatest gifts when I was certain now that I’d been completely manipulated.
“Is it any good?”
Daisy forced herself to look up from the book she had her nose buried in, where she sat hidden in the corner of the cafe. The words her only company.
She gulped at the sight of the guy who was probably in his mid-twenties. He had wavy blond hair that was done in a casual yet stylish way. Wearing slacks and a button-down. An intrigued smile on his face.
He was good looking, she knew. She wasn’t blind, but she might as well have been with the way he was almost a blur. A hazy silhouette as she peered out through the nothingness that surrounded her. The loneliness so thick she couldn’t touch the corporal.
As if she were detached.
Floating in a bare existence.
Numb, but her heart feeling like it was going to implode.
The guy grinned and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Must be really good if it has you tongue-tied.”
She blinked. “Oh, it’s okay,” she managed around the hollowness.
She barely even knew what she was reading. It was just words. An escape she couldn’t fall into when she was trapped.
Lost to the emptiness. Her world destroyed when Cash’s had been.
Because everyone—everyone—she cared about always left her.
Her sister had disappeared. Swallowed by her addiction. Daisy didn’t know if she was alive or if she was dead. If she had succumbed to the product of her grief or if she had simply walked away.
Right in the middle of Daisy’s trauma.
In the moment that Cash had abandoned her.
Four months had passed, and still, she could hardly breathe.
In curiosity, the stranger’s head canted to the side. “See you hanging around here a lot.”
A furrow took to her brow. She hadn’t thought anyone noticed.
When she didn’t answer, he took a step closer. “I’m Ethan.”
“Daisy,” she croaked.
He gestured his disposable coffee cup toward the tiny table where she sat. “Mind if I join you? It always tastes a whole lot better if you don’t drink it alone.”
Would I have changed it if I’d known? Would I have refused his company if I could look back and know the way things would spiral? Would I have stopped myself from giving in? From being so desperate to fill a hole?
And Ethan…I still wasn’t sure if he’d actually loved me.
If he were also filling a void with me. Or maybe he was only using me as a cover. Using me to create a façade of his life. The businessman with a family while he conducted his shady dealings on the side.
But how would I ever change it? Because of him, I had my children. These precious souls that I would protect with my life.
I forced myself back across the house to Cash’s room, where I pulled down the covers on the bed and climbed beneath the cool sheets.
Darkness reigned and my heart stampeded.
Cash’s presence still swarmed the room. Greed and lust still lingering thick.
What had I done tonight? Pushing past that boundary that had been so clearly delineated for us?
But I wanted it. And maybe it really had been time that I stepped out of my shell and claimed a little good for myself.
Pleasure that I’d been denied.
But what did it mean for us now?
I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to will myself to sleep while the thoughts continued to scatter through my mind.