Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 106292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“It’s death,” Nikolai throws in. “People don’t know how to act around others who are grieving. They overthink it and end up missing the most basic things.”
I nod, agreeing with his statement. “Anyway, after the funeral, I met with social services and they placed me with Aunt Liv, and I was living with her in Missouri.”
“Aunt Liv?” my father asks. “Who’s that? I don’t recall her name.”
My brows furrow as I stare at my father. “What are you talking about? Aunt Liv? Olivia? Mom’s sister? She’s looked after me for twelve years.”
“Honey,” he says cautiously. “Your mom never had a sister. She was an only child.”
I shake my head. “No, that’s not right. She would tell me stories about them growing up together.”
My father presses his lips into a hard line and slowly shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Oakley, but no. I met your mom when we were barely fourteen. There was no sister.”
Nikolai clears his throat and cringes. “Yeah, I can shed a little bit of light on that one,” he says, sounding awkward. “You were one of the two remaining blood heirs of Empire. Lawson wasn’t just about to let you slip away. He wanted to keep tabs on you.”
My brows furrow, so many questions coming from his statement, plus a shitload of betrayal from Liv. I thought she really loved me. She was there at my darkest moment and shed just a little bit of light over my life. For so long I thought of her as my guardian angel, but she was nothing but a pawn, a player in Empire’s wicked game. Something I’ll be talking to her about, assuming I get the chance. For now, I have other things that I need to wrap my head around. “Why didn’t Lawson just kill me then? Why lock my father in here? Why spare our lives at all?”
“All good questions,” Nikolai commends. “I’ve been asking myself the same for a very long time. At least, I always wondered why he spared you. To be honest, I thought your father was dead. Imagine my surprise when Zade DeVil locks me in here and I find the real blood heir a few cells down.”
I scoff. “Has any of my life been real?”
Nikolai pulls a face and my eyes widen as I wait for him to continue. “College,” he says. “Your grades were terrible. I personally pulled some strings with Faders Bay University to get you transferred back here. Plus your apartment that you share with . . . Cara, is it? The previous tenants just happened to find the will to move out on short notice and the apartment opened right up for you both to slot straight in. There are many instances during your life where Empire has looked out for you, and despite everything, it is Lawson’s doing that ensured you had such a fulfilled life.”
“Fulfilled?” I question. “I lost my father and grew up away from home, only to come back to four assholes stalking me, and a fucked-up secret society insisting they want my heart torn out of my chest and put up on a pedestal. My life hasn’t been fulfilling, it’s been a wreck.”
“Well, that’s on you. Lawson ensured you had the tools at hand to build yourself a great life, and if you didn’t seize the opportunity and enjoy the twelve years of freedom you received, then that’s on you.”
I clench my jaw, more than ready to break through these damn bars and tear his fucking heart out of his chest, only it won’t be going on a pedestal. I’d turn the emotionless thing into minced meat.
“O,” my father says, trying to draw my attention back to him, but a loud clanging sounds through the cells and my head whips around, listening to the sound of heavy boots against old, rickety stairs. My heart pounds, certain that this must be the asshole who put me in here coming to finish the job.
As if sensing the fear pounding through my veins, my father lets out a broken sigh. “It’s okay, it’s just Harrison bringing dinner. I know you don’t feel it, but you’re safer down here than you ever were out there.”
As if on cue, a big, burly man walks through the cells, stopping every now and then to deliver a tray of food. As he gets closer, I recognize him as the man Zade had called last night after Nikolai’s callous attempt to kill me.
He stops at my father’s cell door, barely sparing him a glance before sliding a tray through a small gap in the bars and giving it a shove, hard enough to send the food flying through the cell and slamming into the side wall, spilling it everywhere. I gasp, watching as he continues walking, but what kills me is the way my father just accepts it and allows the prison guard to treat him like shit.