Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
“I didn’t know she was married to the three of you,” I stressed. “I didn’t know Lily existed.”
“Hmm. Well, I guess that’s something. At least you didn’t come here intending to deceive us. But it doesn’t change the fact that you did it anyway.”
Hera, help me, his expression didn’t give a hint of his thoughts away.
“Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to accept criticism from you, murderer.”
Alex laughed out loud. “Damn, you’re feisty. It’s very sexy.”
I blushed like a dumbass.
“And I wish I could say I’m not a murderer but...” His gaze flicked to the thumb drive. “There’s still so much more to this story.” He clapped, making me jump. “So, let’s get back to it. We left off at the point in the story where we found out just how far your sister would go to get what she wants. Naturally, legally, she was only married to one of us, but Rhodes is our boy. Micah and I couldn’t abandon him to her swirling vortex of evil manipulations. Especially because the next time she told us she was pregnant, it was real.
“Looking back, I think she thought we were holding out on her,” he said. “Sue was living her dream life in New York—spending our money like water—but all the big, major, insane purchases she wanted, like a nine-figure condo in Manhattan and a private jet, we said no to.
“I truly believe she thought a baby would give her more leverage,” Alex confessed. “If not in the marriage, then certainly in the divorce.”
I bit hard on my lip, holding back my thoughts on the matter, because they wouldn’t have been words of disagreement.
“With Lily on the way, she got even more pushy, and insistent, and threatening about us needing to give the baby the life she deserved, and if we kept refusing to give her full access to the family finances, she’d leave and get full custody of Lily,” he said. “After that, we were forced to tell her that we’d been living on the dwindling profits left over from when we owned GloryBoi, because Rhodes gave all of his buyout money away, Micah put his share in an account controlled by his parents, and I never got paid a cent—”
“What?”
“—and Sue hated us from that day on.”
“Whoa, hold on,” I cried, shooting up. “What do you mean you never got paid a cent? You didn’t receive your share of the buyout?”
Alex shook his head, tipping his chin to the ceiling. “Rhodes told us that he shared this part with you, so you already know those bastards came after us when we refused to sell GloryBoi. They dug around in our pasts. With Micah and Rhodes, there was nothing to find. The same couldn’t be said for me.”
“What do you mean? What did they find?”
Alex chuckled, shaking his head. “They found out—and you’re really going to get a kick out of this one—that I’m not Alexander Montgomery.”
A high-pitched, buzzing noise sounded in my ear, drowning the alarm bells going wild in my head. “Excuse me?” I sidestepped toward the exit leaving the great hall. “What did you say?”
Alex? tracked my movement like a hunter. “I said I’m not Alexander Montgomery.” He tipped his head. “Or at least, I wasn’t born Alexander Montgomery. My real name is Fritz Calloway.”
“Fritz... Calloway?” Surprise stopped my inching in its tracks. “That’s a stupid fucking name.”
Fritz barked a startled laugh. “No arguments here. My birth mother was a drug addict who walked right out the damn hospital two days after giving birth to me... without me. I ended up in the system, of course. Foster care until I was eight, then a group home from eight to twelve.”
I held his gaze. “And then...”
A mirthless smile curled into his cheeks. “And then when I was ten years old, one of the older kids in the home started... doing stuff to me.”
My muscles locked up.
“I was small and weak.” Alex’s low, deep voice filled the room. “He was bigger and stronger. He didn’t think there was anything I could do to stop him. He didn’t think anyone would believe me if I told. He found out he was wrong on both counts when I stabbed him with a penknife I stole from a kid at school.
“When the caregivers came running in and found him bleeding on the floor with his pants down, they believed me when I told them why.”
I gave in, releasing the long, slow breath bursting to get out of my lungs. The buzzing quieted, leaving way for a blanketing silence.
“He died in the hospital a week later,” Alexander continued. “The director of the home didn’t want anyone to know that everyone in charge missed that he was abusing me to the point I had to kill him, so they covered it up. They said he was jumped on the way home from school by an unknown assailant that was never caught, and not even a little blemish went into my file.