Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88889 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88889 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
I don’t think this is something I’ll ever recover from.
Levi
Unbearable pain keeps dragging me back down into the darkness that’s followed me throughout my thirty-three years of life on this godforsaken planet.
Kelcie is the only warmth and love I’ve ever felt, and I can’t bear to think I might lose her.
I hold her as tight as I can without hurting her, and as her tears wet my shirt, my eyes burn like they’re on fire.
It feels as if someone is ripping my heart clean from my chest.
“I love you,” I groan, buckling under the severe heartache. “I’m so sorry.”
There’s nothing I regret more than hurting Kelcie.
The instant I laid eyes on Rene, the woman who gave birth to me, the ground might as well have opened up beneath my feet. I was bombarded with every destructive emotion she and my stepfather have ever made me feel. The abuse I suffered at their hands tightened like a noose around my throat, threatening to once again squeeze the life from me.
During my entire childhood, they destroyed me, and now she has come back to destroy the happiness I’ve finally managed to find.
“I’m sorry,” I say again, hoping Kelcie believes me.
She begins to calm down, lost sobs drifting over her lips, and then she wraps her arms around me and holds me tightly.
“I love you, Kelcie. More than you’ll ever know. It might not matter, but please don’t judge me for what Wesley did. Please try to understand, I was terrified of losing you, and that’s why I kept quiet about being related to him. I haven’t seen my family since I was sixteen.”
“You deceived me.” She sounds broken, and it crushes my heart to dust.
Kelcie lowers her arms and pulls away. Knowing I have no choice, I move a couple of steps backward and desperately take in every inch of her face.
When I see all the strength drain from her and a grief-stricken expression dull her eyes, I know I’ve lost her.
Her light fades away, and it feels as if I’m dropped in the middle of the Arctic desert.
My entire body trembles as I quickly dart forward, and framing her face with my hands, I lean down and press a kiss to her forehead. Against her skin, I vow, “I will always love only you, Kelcie. You own all of my heart.”
I duck down lower and kiss her soft lips before I force myself to let go of her.
I rush out of the back door, and as blinding pain engulfs every part of my being, I somehow make it back to my house.
I feel Lick nudging her head against my hand, and when I drop down on the couch, she jumps up and lays her head on my chest, her big eyes locked on my face.
Fuck.
I gasp as the pain keeps intensifying.
Lifting my arms, I grab hold of Lick and bury my face against her fur. She whines as if she can sense my distress.
I just lost Kelcie.
I let go of Lick, and unable to sit still, I dart to my feet and begin to pace up and down the living room for God knows how long.
When I hear an engine start, I stop by the window, and seeing Kelcie’s car backing out of her driveway, I rush to my front door and rip it open. As I run across the yard, she drives by and keeps going.
Jesus, she’s in no state to drive anywhere!
I stop in the road and lift my hands to the back of my head, my breaths exploding over my lips as worry for her safety floods me.
“Levi!”
I glance over my shoulder, and seeing Rene, I turn away and walk back to my house.
“Please,” she cries.
The next second, she grabs hold of my arm, and I just react, yanking away from her while growling, “Don’t fucking touch me.”
I’m instantly filled with disgust so thick, it threatens to suffocate me.
Lick barks threateningly, and it has Rene quickly retreating a couple of feet. “I just want to talk to you.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
I go inside my house, and as I wait for Lick to come in, Rene says, “We lost everything to pay for your brother’s lawyer. I wouldn’t ask for money if I had any other choice, but we’re family. We read you made millions from your books and the movie.”
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
My eyes lock with her desperate ones.
For a split second, I thought she was here to ask for forgiveness. To tell me she missed me.
But instead, she’s here to ask for money?
It feels like I’m losing my mind, and a dark chuckle escapes me. My voice sounds foreign to my ears as I say, “You come to my house with a reporter and ruin the most important thing in my life, only to ask for money?” I shake my head hard. “Even if you were dying of hunger, I wouldn’t give you the trash I throw out every week.”