Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58883 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58883 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
“I don’t love you. I never did,” she tells me.
I’m speechless for a moment, trying to control the tears that stream down my face. I went into a coma, and I’ve woken up in a whole different universe. It’s like the Kat I knew disappeared like Cinderella at midnight and I’ve woken up to the evil step-sister standing in her place. I don’t know the person in front of me. The Kat I knew was full of love and light, a rare jewel in an otherwise toxic and sinister dark world. I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest and the emptiness in its place aches like no pain I’ve ever felt before.
“I love you, Kat,” I say to her. I feel like I’m drowning. I don’t understand why love is so hard for me to hold onto. First my mother, now my soulmate.
“That’s the story you’ve been telling yourself, Heath. But I think the reality of the situation is much more bleak.”
Betrayal rips through any façade of safety I’d created, like a tornado tossing roofs and vehicles as if they were weightless playthings. My entire vision of our future, our lives together, dissipates like a mirage. Her love is gone. A pilar of salt crumbles in its place.
After free-falling into oblivion, my senses finally return to me.
“Get the hell out, Kat. You’re as fake as your stupid fucking brother,” I yell.
On the same day I’m released, less than a month later, I take a taxi to Wainscott Hollow and pack my bags. I often wondered if the only way out of this haunted estate was via the grim reaper, so maybe I should thank my lucky stars I’m walking away for more than one reason. Maybe the damn spider saved my life. I’ll have it bronzed and keep it on my fucking shelf like a talisman.
I toss everything into two suitcases indiscriminately. I find my mother’s locket, and I leave it conspicuously on the dresser. Kat was my heart’s one true love and I don’t know if I’ll ever find that again. Maybe if I leave this heart here, she’ll find hers again.
I crash the luggage shut and drag it noisily down the stairs. Henry stands by the library day-drinking, halfway in the bag. He acknowledges me with a curt nod of the chin, and I give him a salute, followed by the middle finger.
Rest in hell, Wainscott Hollow,” I mutter under my breath. “Cheers to your under lord.”
As I toss the suitcases in the trunk of the cab, I look up to Kat’s window and see a figure behind the white curtain. I wait for a heartbeat to see if she’ll run down or at least wave goodbye to me from her perch. But Kat stares emotionlessly through the lace like she’s trapped in her own personal hell.
I throw her a salute, and slam the door of the cab.
“Take me to the South Bronx. Let’s get the fucking hell out of here.”
PART II
TEN YEARS LATER
THIS IS NOW
CHAPTER 8
Heath
Wainscott Hollow, my heart’s prison. A sane person would never step foot on these shores again had it been the reason for all their sorrows. But no matter how much I want to forget these godforsaken shores, my mind won’t allow me to because it’s the place that houses all my memories of her.
My eyes fall shut as I let the night air and wild winds bring me back to the girl with sandy bare feet and dark hair laughing under the sun as she danced through the tide pools. As much as I want to escape Katelyn Shaw, I cannot because she’s embedded in who I am, and no one can escape that which truly makes you who you are.
I didn’t want to come back until I had everything she needed. She called me a nobody, a loser, someone who couldn’t provide her with the luxury she was accustomed to. So when I left, I built my own empire, was ruthless in my endeavors, all to accumulate a fortune that would surpass her fathers. I did what I had to, stained my hands with blood to earn money I don’t even want or care about. My only goal is Kat. For her, there is nothing I wouldn’t do, no horror I wouldn’t bear.
The last words she spoke to me haunt me now, as they did ten years ago.
I don’t love you. I never did.
I spent years trying to forget her, abandoning my memory of her in whatever I could find, but nothing worked. But to unburden one’s self from their darkest and most depraved desires is impossible. She may legally be my sister but try telling that to the beast inside me.
So here I am, holding the fragmented pieces of my broken and blackened heart, shattered by the only woman I’ve ever loved. A woman who was never meant to be mine. The only woman on this earth who’s ever been able to hurt me.