Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
It was my eyes that were the last to process who had called my name.
Kaden. It was Kaden running with his bodyguard, Maurice, behind him. I didn’t know Maurice well; he’d been hired right before I’d been freed, but I still recognized him.
In a bulky parka jacket and jeans I’d bet he’d spent a thousand dollars on, the man I’d wasted fourteen years of my life with came running over.
How the hell he recognized me now that I’d let my natural hair color totally grow out again, I had no idea. Maybe his mom had told him. Maybe Arthur or Simone had.
He looked the same as he always did. Made up. Dressed nice. Fresh and wealthy.
But the moment he was closer, I noticed the bags under his eyes. They weren’t normal bags like the rest of us humans got, but for him, they were something. Something about his expression was anxious as well.
The black SUV Rhodes had spotted. That had been him. I just knew it.
“I’m sorry, Rhodes,” I whispered, leaning into him just a little, trying to tell him that it was him I wanted, who I was here for.
I knew Rhodes knew who he was.
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about, angel,” he replied just as Kaden huffed and slowed down as he approached.
He was looking at me with wide, light brown eyes, panting. “Roro,” he said, like I hadn’t heard him the first time.
The arm around my shoulders went nowhere as I asked him like he was a customer we’d banned from the store, “What are you doing here?”
Kaden blinked slowly, surprised, or . . . you know what? I didn’t give a shit. “I came . . . I need to talk to you.” He sucked in a breath. His bodyguard stopped short just a couple of feet behind him. “How are you?” he panted. His gaze tried to eat me up, but I wasn’t edible anymore. “Wow. I forgot how beautiful you are with your natural hair color.”
I definitely wasn’t going to pick at that hypocritical comment with a ten-foot pole. He’d never stuck up for me once when my roots would start to grow back in and his mom would nag me about making an appointment at the salon. If I’d given enough of a shit to go back through my memories, I would have picked up on the fact that he never had stood up for me with her, period.
I didn’t have it in my heart to be bitter or angry or even be a bitch. I just didn’t care anymore. “I’m great.”
Seeing him was . . . just weird. Déjà vu–like, I guess. Like I’d lived another lifetime and knew I should have felt something for him but didn’t. There was nothing in my heart as I took in his clean-cut face and styled hair. And I sure as hell felt nothing as he did the same back to me.
But I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to have this conversation. Not even a little bit. And I needed to nip this in the bud ASAP. “Why are you here, Kaden? I made it really clear to your mom what would happen if I ever saw any of you again.” I tried to keep it simple, even though I couldn’t believe he was really here.
But he took a step forward, his gaze finally flicking to Rhodes. His throat bobbed. Then it bobbed again as he took in the arm resting over my shoulders. Noticing the way I was facing the man at my side, leaning against him. Kaden’s inhale was quick and sharp. “She doesn’t know I’m here. Can we talk?” he asked, deciding to ignore my comment.
I blinked.
And that blink must have said exactly what I was thinking—no, I don’t want to talk to you—because he rushed out, breathlessly, “I came to see you.”
It only took him nearly two years, I thought and just about laughed.
Two years later and he was here. Here! God bless America! I should be so lucky!
I knew better now than I had even six months ago that life was way too short for this shit.
I tried my best not to make a face; I wanted this over. “So did your mom, and I told her I have absolutely no interest in seeing or talking to either of you ever again. I meant it. I meant it then, I mean it now, and I’m going to mean it years from now. We aren’t friends. I don’t owe you anything. The only thing I want to do is go inside,” I explained about as calmly as I possibly could.
Kaden’s head jerked back, looking genuinely wounded. I had to fight not to roll my eyes. “We aren’t friends?”
I didn’t know what it said about me that I almost laughed at how ridiculous this conversation was. I’d been through so much and this . . . this was so stupid. “I’m going to say this without the intention of wanting to hurt your feelings, because I just don’t care enough to even bother doing that, but yes, we aren’t friends. We stopped being friends a long time ago. We’re never going to be friends again, and honestly, I don’t know why you’re here after this long. Like I told your mom, there is nothing I want to hear from either of you.”