Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 63565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Mex’s face lingers in my mind as I make my way over, and it hurts.
I want to talk to him, to make this better, to say something that’ll stop him looking at me the way he was, but I know nothing I say will change anything. He hates me, and with good reason. I didn’t expect to feel the kind of pain I’m feeling, the ache in my chest that won’t go away, the desperate need to fix something with a man I’m not even dating. I know I’ve developed feelings for him, though, and I know that those aren’t just going to leave.
I think I might be falling in love with him.
As I reach my destination, I take a deep breath before heading in. I know Death will be here, but before I speak to him, I really need to get the name of this girl. If I can give the club what they want, maybe Mex will hear me out. It’s worth a shot, at the very least. I speak to a few people as I make my way towards my mother’s office. Nobody seems shocked to see me again, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign. As I reach the office, I see it’s empty. I throw up a silent thanks and pull out the key, unlocking it. Thankfully, Death hasn’t changed the locks.
Once inside, I sit down at the desk and open her computer. I go through everything, but I can’t find any information at all. The entire thing has been wiped clean, as if nothing ever existed, as if she never existed. I resort to digging through her drawers, the cupboards, anything that might hold what I’m looking for, but it’s all empty. Everything is gone. The office looks exactly the same, but there is not a trace of her here. Death is the only person that could have removed all of this.
“You won’t find anything.”
Spinning, I see Death standing at the doorway, a gun dangling from his fingers.
My heart skips a beat.
“I’m just looking for some information,” I say, carefully, my eyes on the gun.
“Well, as I said,” he murmurs, stepping in, “you won’t find anything.”
I don’t like his tone, and more than that, I don’t like the gun in his hand. He is scaring me, there is a coldness in his eyes that makes me uneasy.
“Death, what’s going on?” I ask, moving around behind the desk.
“The more I thought about it, the more things just didn’t add up...”
He moves closer, I take a step back.
“What are you talking about?”
“You knew your mother was dead, but more than that, you weren’t even shocked. So, I started digging a little deeper, and it turns out...you were the last person she saw before she went ‘missing’.”
No.
Oh no.
My heart thumps against my chest as I frantically try to figure out how the hell I’m going to get out of this. He is going to kill me, I can see it in his eyes. I came here to avoid doing just that, and all along, he wasn’t even going to hesitate. He will take my life to avenge hers, and for a stupid moment, I actually thought I mattered to him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, as my eyes scan the room, desperately trying to find a way out.
“Oh, but you do. You do because you’re the one who killed her.”
I meet his gaze. “Death...”
He laughs, bitterly. “Part of me gets it, you know? She was a terrible mother. I know it, she knew it and you knew it. Yet, she kept you alive through some of the most dangerous times in your life. If it wasn’t for her, you would have been sold off a long time ago.”
What a load of crap.
She didn’t sell me off because I was her daughter and nothing less. If I was a random stranger on the street, I would have been thrown out with the rest of them. If that’s what helped her sleep at night, then I’m happy for her, but she could never take the claim that she was ever protecting me because that is simply not true.
“I’m her child, she had no need to protect me from being sold off. I shouldn’t have been a consideration to begin with. Nothing you say will make me believe she is any less the monster I know she was.”
“Was?”
He takes another step forward, the gun swinging into his palm now so he can get a better grip on it.
Death is going to kill me.
“You know what’s hilarious about this situation?” I say, moving around the desk as he slowly stalks closer. If I can get him away from the door, I might be able to run. “Is that I came here to kill you. Marek told me that’s all I had to do for my freedom, but I was truly beating myself up wondering how I could ever live with myself if I did it. What a fool I am.”