Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
“Yes. I remember, Harper, but whatever this is, I probably already know. Just tell me and let’s deal with this.”
“No. No, you don’t know this or your father would be dead right now. You wouldn’t have saved him. God. He didn’t deserve to be saved. I convinced myself this wasn’t real. I convinced myself he didn’t do this because if he did, that means my mother accepts what he did. It almost makes her guilty. I knew I’d lose her. I knew—”
“Harper,” Eric says firmly, tilting my gaze to his, and only then do I realize that tears are streaming down my cheeks. “You need to take a deep breath, sweetheart. It’s going to be okay. I’m certain, I know more than you think I know.” His thumbs stroke the tears from my cheeks.
“Not this.” I grab his hand. “Not this. I can’t tell you this without you letting me lock you in a room or something first.”
“Trust me—”
“I do. And I want you to trust me, which is why I knew I ultimately had to tell you this but when you hear what it is, you’ll know why I didn’t want to. You’ll know why I thought it’s unchangeable but painful, so why cut you that way?”
“Just tell me.”
“Let’s go get naked upstairs.” I wrap my arms around him. “Let’s just go fuck and fuck some more. Forget this. You can’t change it. I can’t change it.”
“Harper, I need you to just tell me.”
“No.” I laugh and it’s not with humor. I sound a little crazy. “No. This isn’t a good idea. I was smart to not tell you. I was holding it back to protect you.”
His jaw sets and voice firms. “You’re going to tell me.”
Panic rises inside me. “Let me off the window.” He doesn’t move and I push on his chest. “Let me off the window!”
“Harper—”
“Eric. Damn it. I’m suffocating.”
His eyes glint with a mix of steel and storm clouds. He wants to push me. Oh God, he’s going to push me. I reacted emotionally. I did this. I opened my stupid mouth. And there are so many prices that will be paid for this. “It’s nothing I did. Let me off the window. Please.”
His jaw flexes and the next thing I know I’m over his shoulder and he’s carrying me across the living room. I don’t even yelp. I can’t seem to process anything for the ache in my chest and the blood rushing to my head. By the time he lowers me onto bed and then comes down on top of me, my head is throbbing.
“Tell me.”
“And if I don’t?”
“You will.”
My fingers curl on his jaw, the rasp of stubble beneath my skin, tenderness filling me for this man. “This is a motive for you to kill your father. Right now, if you get accused of killing him, if he dies, I can say under oath you didn’t know this. Wait until we know if you’ll be blamed.”
“Harper, princess—”
“I hate that name. It makes me feel like you think of me as one of them.”
“You with me now. That name is about you and me, not them. Harper, I need you to tell me. I promise you, I will not leave this apartment after finding out. I’ll stay right here with you.”
“That’s not enough.”
“It’s all I have. My word. My word to you, and a vow to make that mean something to you now and forever.”
“Please don’t hate me for not telling you.”
“I don’t. It’s clear you were protecting me.”
“Say it again. Promise me you will not leave after I tell you, but more so, tell me you’ll confirm the information, and take a step back, a week, days, to think before you act.”
His eyes meet mine. “I promise.”
“And I’m not saying this to protect your father. If this is true, he is worse than I ever dreamt he could be. He’s a monster. I’m saying this to protect you because you don’t deserve to end up behind bars because of him.”
He rolls with me, pulling me on top, telling me he’s in control. I lean over him, and I draw in a breath, praying telling him is not a mistake, but I have to. He has a right to know. He has to know with my mother running her mouth. “It was—about six months after my miscarriage and my mother called me. She was in a panic. She’d found something that freaked her out. I met her at their house, and she said she’d seen notes in your father’s files. She was looking for some property lease and—”
“What did she find?”
“Just keep in mind that she told me she was wrong. She read the document wrong.”
“Harper, you’re killing me here.”
“The document was about a cancer trial that your mother was trying to get into.”