Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
“Answer me, Anna,” he says firmly. “Was your father’s name Tristan?”
I have to clear my throat before I can speak. I nod. “Y-yes.”
His eyes remained focused, but something drains from his expression—like he was hoping I would say no to his question.
“And you started foster care when you were ten?” He’s asking, but he already knows the answer. We’ve spoken about this many times.
“Blake, you know this–”
“Damnit, Anna, just answer me!” The way he snaps causes me to jump. He’s never raised his voice like this to me before in the entire time I’ve known him.
“Yes!” I blurt out. “My dad—my dad died in a car accident, and my mom turned to drugs and alcohol and couldn’t take care of me, so the state took me away from her.”
Blake’s expression drops, and I see something I’ve never seen on him before: weakness. There is something seriously wrong right now, and it’s causing me to feel really uneasy. And what an awkward time for all this too.
“Jesus Christ…” he says, his voice barely a whisper.
“Blake, what is it?” I inch closer, but he backs away. He even puts a hand up to stop me from trying again. “Baby?”
He shakes his head as though the entire world is about to come crashing down on top of us. And after the way I’ve been living my life, with him protecting me from everything, I kind of believe it just might.
“Your father didn’t die in a car accident, Anna,” he finally says. “That was just a cover story for the police and the media.”
Blake’s words hit me like a punch in the gut. My head starts spinning as I try to get ahold of what I just heard him say.
“Wait, Blake…What–?”
“You asked me how I knew your father’s name, Anna,” he says, taking a deep breath. “I knew your father’s name because I was the one who killed him.”
18
Anna
Panic hits me hard, like a freight train running me over at top speed.
Am I on drugs? Is this a dream?
Something has to be happening because Blake can’t have just said what I think he said to me.
“W-what?” I stammer as my throat begins to constrict and the tears begin to well up in my eyes. “You what?”
Blake is hanging his head and not looking at me.
I try to take a deep breath, but my lungs quiver and everything shakes. It feels like I’m choking on life itself.
“Blake!” I shout, trying to get his attention. “What did you just say?”
“Tristan Monroe…” he mutters. “Your father–”
“Yes, that was my father’s name!” I blurt back. “Now tell me what you just said. What are you talking about? You killed him?”
Blake shakes his head, and there’s a brief window of hope that comes over me, but I realize that he’s just shaking it at himself because he’s so caught up in what’s happening too.
“Your father was…a criminal, Anna,” he says slowly. “We were friends once actually.”
“My father was not a criminal!” I shout. “He wasn’t the nicest man in the world, but–”
“He never let you see that side of his life,” Blake replies. “But he was deep in the underworld. Until one day he decided to go up against me.”
“No…” I shake my head.
“He thought he could take control and become kingpin of the city.”
“Stop…” Tears spill from my cheeks as a terrible pressure builds up inside me. This is too much. I can feel the fibers of my relationship with Blake being torn apart with every word he says.
“But I couldn’t allow that to happen, Anna,” he continues, his voice taking on that icy tone it once had when we first met. “So you know what I would do in a situation like that.”
My legs give out from under me. I collapse onto the grass, sobbing my eyes out. I feel tears splash onto my ring finger, soaking the diamond Blake just placed there. I hear his steps as he moves closer and feel his presence as he kneels down beside me.
“Never in my life did I think I would meet his daughter nine years later,” I hear him say. “Never did I think I would fall in love with her. But I can’t change the past, Anna. And I can’t change how I feel about you.”
A surge of adrenaline hits me. Then I’m on my feet and running as fast as I can away from him, through the living room and foyer.
I snatch a set of keys from the hook by the door and practically throw myself outside, gasping for breath as the tears stream down my cheeks.
I click the remote, and a Benz two cars over unlocks. I leap into the driver’s seat and slam on the gas as Blake comes racing out of the house after me. He tries to get in front of the car and block me from getting out, but I swerve around him.