Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
“Yes.”
“Because you thought I might be crawling with diseases?”
“No.”
“Because you thought you were crawling with diseases?”
“No.”
Of course not. He hasn’t touched anyone in eight years. So I keep going, “Because you didn’t want to accidentally get me pregnant?”
I’m super close to the reason, and his next clipped words hit the nail on the head: “Yeah and because I don’t want anything connectin’ you to me beyond these three weeks. Because I want you to be free.”
“Where were you?” Peyton asks me sometime later, and I freeze.
It’s still early in the morning, and I’m coming out of my room, or rather his room, that I’m staying in. After our less-than-pleasant conversation, Arsen said he’d drop me off at the mansion because he needed to do some things today, and I agreed without arguing because really, what choice did I have. I’m not sure if what happened there at the end meant that it was over. This thing between us. I can’t even call it a thing, though.
It was just one night.
And some imaginary games that didn’t mean anything. Besides, I’ve already forgiven him for everything he did. How can I be mad at him when he did it all for love? I know I always wanted a careful kind of love, a love different from my mother’s, but I don’t think what my parents had was even remotely similar to love.
Love is branding yourself in penance because you couldn’t save the woman you loved. It’s doing anything to exact revenge for her death. Love is what he feels for Annie even eight years later.
Love is what I feel for him. So he’s off the hook. Anyway, I come back to the moment and reply, “In my room.” Then, looking around, I add, “Are you sure we should be talking to each other without supervision?”
So apart from all the new information about the will and the Turner business, yesterday it was also decreed to both of us that we’ll be staying in separate rooms, away from each other. That we are allowed to be in each other’s company only if someone, either Haven or Axton, is with us. It’s probably to keep us from colluding and coming up with our own plan of escape, even though we both agreed to cooperate with them. I guess taking chances with the Turners is not something the Graysons are willing to do.
I don’t blame them, because Peyton is trying to plan something, but I also think it’s bullshit. In any case, I wasn’t aware that we were breaking rules first thing in the morning.
Peyton rolls her eyes. “What are we, five? I don’t care about what they want. And I checked about half an hour ago; you weren’t in there.”
Yes, because Arsen dropped me off about twenty minutes ago, and since then, I’ve been taking a shower and getting ready for the day. In the clothes that Haven got me. So a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a hoodie. The clothes that I use to hide myself, the ones he didn’t want me to wear. It doesn’t matter now, though. I have other things to think about so I wave my thoughts away. “Probably because I was in the bathroom.”
I hope she buys my lie, but when she does, almost immediately, it doesn’t give me the relief I’d hoped for. Instead, it makes me feel shitty because I’ve never really hidden anything from her. Well, except how my mother died, but that’s different.
“Why, is your stomach upset?” she asks sympathetically. “Because I think there was something fishy in those sausage rolls we had at the party.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Peyton, focus.”
She shakes her head. “Right. Sorry.”
“Why are we meeting in the middle of the hallway, in broad daylight, when anyone can stumble upon us? We need to be smart, remember?”
She looks up and down the hallway before sharing, “I’m here because we need to go.”
My heart starts racing because this is it, isn’t it? This is where things turn even more dangerous because my best friend has a plan.
“Go where?” I ask carefully.
Once again, she looks this way and that and leans closer to me. “We’re going to check out Marsden’s study.”
“What?” I exclaim loudly.
Which makes Peyton squeeze my arm. “Are you crazy? Lower your voice.”
I slap a hand over my mouth before taking control of myself and whispering, “No, you are crazy. We’re absolutely not doing that.”
That’s like walking into a lion’s den. Because if we get caught, I’m pretty sure Marsden Grayson, with his mustache and his cold eyes, will eat us up and spit us out.
“Yes, we are,” Peyton protests. “I have a feeling we’re going to find all kinds of things in there.”
“Exactly,” I protest back. “Which means if we get caught, it’s game over for us.”
“We won’t get caught.”
“How do you know that?”