Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 96957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Nothing.
I hugged my arms to my stomach. “Does he love her?”
Dad shrugged. “They’ve been married for almost five years. He might love her.”
“Five? Almost five years? The incident at the cabin happened just over five years ago. He didn’t fall in love and get married that quickly. Who the hell is she and why is she married to the man that I love?”
Another flinch from my father. He never could swallow the truth—and the truth was, despite everything, I loved Wylder to my soul.
“She needed a new life too. Single people relocating as a couple are less likely to be noticed, to be found.”
“Did he know her?”
Dad shook his head.
“He married a stranger? Like an arranged marriage?”
“Yes.”
Five years.
He’d been with her for five years. As friends?
“What’s she like?”
“Livy—”
“Jesus, Dad! Just tell me what she’s like!”
He deflated. “She’d just turned eighteen when they married.”
My stomach clenched.
“She’s smart. A lot like you, actually. She likes to surf and drive fast cars. She’s a vegetarian and an environmentalist. You’d like her.”
“I hate her.”
I didn’t. But I wanted to hate her.
Another grimace from him.
“Is she pretty?”
“Don’t do this.”
“Answer me.” I kept my emotions in check. Wylder loved me. I knew that. Still … he’d been married to her for five years. A girl that was like me.
“She’s young enough to be my daughter. I don’t focus on her like that.”
“Am I pretty, Dad?”
“Of course.”
“Is. She. Pretty?”
He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds. “Yes, Livy. She’s pretty.”
I had nothing more to ask. Nothing more to say. I just had … nothing.
“Let him go.”
“Maybe they don’t find us. Whoever you’re afraid of finding him and hurting me. Maybe they don’t find us. I’ve seen him. He was here. And we’re fine.”
“He was here? In your apartment?”
I nodded.
His jaw tightened. “Where is he now?”
“Texas.”
“Did he find you?”
I shook my head.
“Chance encounter?”
I nodded.
“Good. Let him go.”
“What if—”
“No, Livy! There’s no fucking what-if’s here. It was incredibly stupid of him to come to your apartment, knowing damn well someone could be watching you.”
“Why would someone be watching me?”
“Because you were with him. You lived with him. If there’s the tiniest doubt in anyone’s mind that he’s not dead, you are the place they will look to find him.”
“I’m fine. He was here twice, and I’m fine.”
“Livy, you don’t understand. These people are patient. They will not take you out on a whim. They will wait until you’re married. They’ll watch you build a life of happiness, and then they will take it from you one piece at a time. Abe could have made an attempt on my life years ago, but he didn’t. He waited until I had the best damn life, and then he killed your mom and let me suffer for years, patiently waiting for me to recover just so he could take you away from me too.”
More tears released down my face. What did Wylder want from me? Was our night together a goodbye that felt better than the day I left him for dead? Did he expect me to leave my family forever—to die and take on a new identity? Quit my job. Lose everything I’d worked for over the previous twenty-six years?
“So this other woman, his wife, she’s acceptably disposable? It’s okay if they find him and take her? Kill her?”
“Yes. She’s an acceptable risk because she agreed to it, knowing the risks. She nearly died. She lost all of her family. Every day is borrowed time for her. No family around to miss her or worry about her. Alex is her family now.”
Alex.
I hated hearing him call Wylder Alex.
“Livy, he’s alive and well. He has a good job. A nice home in the suburbs. And he’s protecting a young woman who lost everything. You have a dream job. You have family. You have a boyfriend if you don’t mess it up. I’m sorry … I’m truly sorry you ever had to find out. And I don’t know what it’s like to lose the same person twice. But I know your strength. It’s your mom’s strength. Use that strength to move on. And let time take care of the heartache. Look at me. I was a mess. But here I am, still in one piece. I made it through the pain, and you will too.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The pain.
It took my dad years to make it through the pain. Five years after losing Wylder the first time, I still felt the pain.
Every.
Single.
Day.
And there I was … getting ready to start the whole process over again.
Wylder was the one. My choice was to lose the one or lose all of my family. It shouldn’t have been a choice at all.
I would keep my family and return to my life before Floyd Wright brought Wylder back into my life. He would protect the woman he married. It made sense to my brain, but my heart didn’t understand. My heart looked at it differently.