Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
After some time had passed, I move so that I’m staring up at the sky, enjoying the warmth of the pool, thinking back to that day. Leo had been with me, I’m sure of it. Something had happened, that meant he couldn’t guard me anymore. An image of me in the kitchen, and some sleeping pills I’d discovered flashed in my mind.
I drugged Leo. Why?
“You need some lotion on,” Andrei said, pulling me out of my thoughts.
Why did he always have to be there when I was thinking? The man seemed to know when I was dwelling on that one day, and I didn’t like it.
Standing up in the shallow end of the water, I wipe the water from my eyes and shake my head. “I don’t need any lotion.”
He sat down on the edge, putting his feet in the water and tutted. “You are being a little stubborn.”
“Why did I drug Leo?” I asked.
Andrei’s good at keeping his emotions in check. He is a very difficult man to read, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t been watching him to see if I could find a way of understanding the man I married. It was subtle. The slight tensing of his shoulders. The way his hands clenched on the edge of the swimming pool.
“I did, didn’t I?”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to prove here.”
“I’m not trying to prove anything. Did you know the doctor said I could have a child again? Don’t you think that’s rather odd for a doctor to say?” I asked.
“Doctors say strange things all the time. I wouldn’t read any more into it than normal.”
This made me laugh. “And then of course, there’s the way you act. You don’t want to be around me since that day. What happened?”
He frowned at me. “I don’t want to be around you?”
“Have you figured out that people don’t seem to like me? You should have been with Bethany. My family didn’t even care enough to come and visit me in the hospital.”
“Don’t ever say her fucking name!” His voice is hard and stern.
“You were going to marry her.”
“Her name doesn’t even deserve to be spoken from your lips. You will have nothing to do with her.”
“Why? Why? Why?” I can’t help yelling the last part. He’s imposing all these restrictions on me and I don’t know why. “Why isn’t Leo my guard? Why are we here? Why are you so angry with my sister?”
“Because she’s the one who arranged for you to be fucking shot!”
This made me gasp and I physically jerk as if I’ve been hit again. “What?”
“She wants you dead, Adelaide. This doesn’t come as a surprise to you. As for your parents, I wouldn’t allow them to come close to you. They have shown their loyalty to Bethany one too many times. They will never get near you. You did drug Leo that day, and that’s why he cannot take care of you, and he’s alive because I knew once you remembered, you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if I killed him for his carelessness.”
Tears fill my eyes.
“And you were pregnant,” he said.
This one makes me gasp and my hands go to my stomach. “What? No! That’s not possible.”
Andrei slides into the pool and comes close to me. I don’t even bother to fight him as he cups my face and tilts my head back. “I wasn’t going to allow you to ever find out, but you are so fucking persistent about that day.”
“I was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“And I lost it?”
“Bethany stole that from you.”
“Is Nathan alive?” I asked. I have flashes of him all the time.
“There is something you need to know about Nathan.”
What Andrei tells me, shocks me to my core and I shake my head. At some point, I try to pull away from him, but Andrei holds me tighter, refusing to let me go. Nathan was—no, is—a hit man, and now Andrei won’t tell me where he is or what he’s doing.
“But … he’s my friend?” I don’t know why I’m questioning it.
“Nathan is your friend. That I can guarantee you. He will not do anything to harm you, and he has, in his own way, been taking care of you for a very long time.”
Tears trail down my cheeks, and Andrei swears, swiping at them.
I no longer want a swim.
“I need to go,” I said.
He holds me even tighter. “I’m not letting you go anywhere.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to feel any pain, Adelaide. You were shot in front of my eyes.”
As if Andrei had told me all the pieces, slowly, like a puzzle, I put it all together, and I remember what happened that day. The anonymous text. The warehouse. Seeing Nathan, broken and bruised.
“Why were you beating him?” I asked.
“I found out he was a hit man and he was best friends with my wife. I had to know who he was, and what he’s capable of.”