Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“What are you thinking about?”
His answer was immediate. “My brother.”
“And what about him?”
“We’re supposed to have dinner with my father on Saturday. All together under the same roof.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It’s complicated.”
“What made the two of you estranged in the first place?”
“It’s a long story,” he said with a sigh. “A really long story.”
“Well, we’ve got all night.”
He turned quiet, letting the silence trickle by. “My father had enemies, and those enemies killed Cauldron’s mother while he was away. More than killed her. Raped her and tortured her first. Cauldron was not much more than a toddler at the time, and hidden away in the closet, he heard everything.”
I felt my entire body go stiff.
“My father married my mother shortly afterward. I was always resentful because my father made it very obvious he preferred Cauldron to me. He was the favorite. He was the firstborn. My mother was a bit of a gold digger, so when we were older, she made plans to kill Cauldron, something I had no part in. To this day, he doesn’t believe me, because our relationship had always been so strained. My father believed her lies that she had nothing to do with the assassination attempt, so Cauldron cut ties. To him, it was the second offense, because he thinks our father is solely responsible for his mother’s death. That was a decade ago, and we’ve had very limited contact since—until recently.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“I told you it was a long story.”
“And a sad one…”
“That’s life,” he said noncommittally.
“Is your mother still around?”
“She died a while ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
He continued to wear that same blank look. “She wasn’t a good person anyway.”
Cocooned in his arms, I rubbed his hard chest, feeling the steady beat of his strong heart. “It sounds like you have the chance to reunite your family.”
“I’m not sure if Cauldron hates me or my father more.”
“I don’t think he’d agree to help you if you hated you at all. I don’t think he’d give your relationship another chance either if he did.”
His eyes remained locked on the fire, his thoughts somewhere else.
I wanted him to say more, but I could tell he was empty. “You want me to stay until morning?”
The change in subject brought him out of his trance. “Yes.”
“I like sleeping with you. It’s comfortable.”
He turned his head into mine and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
I closed my eyes because the affection felt so nice, so natural that he didn’t even seem to notice what he did. “Will you come with me on Saturday?”
“To dinner with your family?”
“Yes.”
“You want me there…?”
“Cauldron will bring Camille. I can bring you too.”
“Is Camille his wife?”
His lips rested against my head as his fingers continued to caress my hair. “I have no idea what she is to him.”
We arrived at the house first.
It was an apartment behind a gate, with a fountain in the front and double doors that were over twelve feet high. Grave held my hand in his as he entered and greeted the butler with a subtle nod.
I wore a nice black dress with a thick coat on top to fight the cold, and the butler immediately took my jacket to hang in the closet. Grave led me farther inside, and we entered a grand dining room that could accommodate at least twenty people. Windows were all around, showing the courtyard just outside. The table was already set for dining, and there were open bottles of wine ready to be poured.
An older man sat at the head of the table, dressed in a maroon long-sleeved shirt. His eyes went to Grave and remained there for several seconds before he rose from his seat to greet him. They exchanged a hug along with a clap on the back. Then his father looked at me, taking me in with eyes identical to Grave’s.
“Elise.” That was all Grave said, like he’d already mentioned me to him.
He took my hand in his and kissed my cheek. “Lorenzo. Please make yourself comfortable in my home.”
“Thank you,” I said, slightly caught off guard because he had the same energy as his son. This silent and deadly aura that said he could break your neck in a second if he wanted to. Like father, like son. He was kind to me, smiled at me, but the cloud over his head was unmistakable.
Lorenzo sat at the head of the table, and Grave pulled out my chair before he sat down.
Knowing the history of his family changed my perspective on their interactions. Now when I looked at Lorenzo, all I could think about was Cauldron hiding in a closet as he listened to his mother suffer. I thought about how unfairly Grave was treated by every member of his family.
“Elise,” Lorenzo said. “That’s a very pretty name.”
“Thank you. It was my grandmother’s name.”