Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
The mention of that alone makes my blood boil. I can’t imagine those scenarios without losing it completely, and I need to keep my head because I want names and descriptions. I’ll go after every one of those sons of bitches and rip them apart.
Another laugh leaves her lips. “How was that for irony? Most days, I didn’t have enough money to feed us, and all the while, I had access to a fortune I couldn’t touch.”
Fuck. The sound of that, that she or Noah went hungry, does something to me, something that makes me want to fix things that can’t be fixed. It’s not an easy truth to live with. The knowledge burns like acid in my stomach.
She continues with a rueful smile. “Being a fugitive has its advantages. It teaches you to always have an escape plan A, B, and C as well as how to disappear fast and effectively.”
Yes, she’s become quite the escape artist. No one knows that better than me.
“I realized that the necklace wasn’t going to do me any good,” she continues. “I couldn’t turn it in without risking arrest. No one was going to believe me when I told them I had no idea how it had ended up here or why my mom had given me the key. I would’ve probably gotten locked up for theft and spent the rest of my life behind bars, and what would’ve happened to Noah then?”
I’d never let it come to that, even if I had to break her out of fucking Fort Knox.
She runs a finger along the edge of the marble altar. “I’ve come to look at the necklace rather as a life insurance policy. I thought that one day, I might need it when I ran out of escape plans.”
And this is how she believes she’s going to escape me for good, by trading in the one thing I want most in the world for another I can’t live without.
She’s made it clear that my touch is unwelcome, but that doesn’t stop me from invading her space. “What about the explosion?”
“I reckoned most people would expect the necklace to be in the vault of a bank. So I used some of the money my mom had left and commissioned a guy to build me a bomb. My father never paid me much attention. He always treated me as if I were invisible, but I listened and watched. I knew who to contact. It wasn’t difficult to install the bomb. He designed it to work with a simple tripwire.”
“Fuck, Tatiana. You could’ve blown yourself up in the process. Do you have any idea what a big risk you took?”
She smiles. “Yes, it was risky, but it was a good escape plan. That bomb was my insurance of getting away the day someone kidnapped me. I rented the safe box in my false name and prayed that I’d never have to put that plan into action.”
Despite the risk she took, my chest expands with admiration and pride. “It worked.” A muscle ticks under my eye. “But you nearly got yourself killed.”
“My mind was already broken by then. I could hardly remember my own name. Whenever I gave in to the panic, I thought about Noah. I kept on repeating his name, fighting to stay sane, to stay alive for my son.”
“That’s why you didn’t forget him,” I say gently.
“I already started losing myself when they kept me tied up in a chair. But they kept on pushing me back into that trunk. They kept on promising me a glass of water if I told them where the necklace was. And then the code for the safe box flashed in my memory. I saw the name of the bank in my mind’s eye. That’s what I gave them.”
“Your mind was accessing selective memories.”
“Maybe my mind subconsciously knew what would protect me. Or maybe those memories were stronger. More vivid.” She shrugs again. “I don’t know why those are the details I remembered. But I didn’t know myself that the box would explode.”
Unable to hold back any longer, I cup her jaw. “You were so fucking lucky, Tatiana.”
“No.” She steps away from me, escaping my touch. “I was many things, Dante, but lucky wasn’t one of them. I was scared, terrified, and weak.”
“You’re right. Luck had nothing to do with it. You had a plan because you were clever and brilliant and you left nothing to chance. But you’re wrong if you think you were weak. You were strong, Tatiana. You survived. You fought. You fought for Noah. A weak person wouldn’t have done what you did.”
That’s when I know.
This strong, intelligent, industrious woman is perfect for me.
No, I always knew that. Right from the start. If anyone could survive me, it was Tatiana. And she didn’t only survive. She flourished. But at what price?