Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 86808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
With no intention of inviting the enemy into my home, I lead Todd out onto the front portico as the SUV comes to a stop. Heart thundering with a volatile mixture of anticipation and fear, my gaze is riveted on the back passenger door where my daughter will exit. I can’t see inside because the back windows are tinted, but I clearly see Lionel and Rosemund talking to each other.
No… they’re arguing, if their tight expressions are any indication, and Lionel twists his neck to say something to Sylvie in the back. His expression is fierce and foreboding, and it is clear that Sylvie is involved in the argument as well.
I start to make a move down the steps, but Todd shakes his head. “Just wait. Give them time.”
I clench my hands into fists but wait.
Seconds feel like hours and eventually Rosemund’s door opens and she steps out. Fashionable as always, she wears designer jeans and knee-high boots paired with a blue silk blouse. Jewels twinkle from her ears and fingers. My breath catches as she opens the rear passenger door and Sylvie slides from the seat.
I pay no attention to Lionel who also exits and moves to the rear of the vehicle, pulling out a single suitcase. My eyes remain on the little girl with black hair and green eyes that are brightened by the morning sun. She’s wearing a pair of jeans, tennis shoes and a zip-up hoodie. Sylvie doesn’t look at Rosemund or me or even Todd, but rather her gaze rakes in a cursory glance over the massive house. Her lip curls slightly as if she has been dumped off in front of a hovel.
“I’m not living here,” she announces haughtily, that French accent coming across as aristocratically entitled. I want to defend my birthright, this historical home that holds my and, one day, Sylvie’s legacy. But I keep my emotions reined tight and hold my silence.
“I don’t like it any more than you do,” Rosemund replies dryly as she clasps her hands before her and turns to face me. “But that crook of a judge seems to think you belong here.”
“Let’s go,” Lionel demands, now at Sylvie’s side with her suitcase.
“I won’t,” his granddaughter says, completely unfazed by her grandfather’s commanding presence. Despite the fact she is being disobedient to an elder, I have to admire her fearlessness toward one of the most feared men in Shelby County. Lionel Mardraggon is an asshole to most everyone.
“You will, young lady.” Lionel grabs her wrist while Rosemund steps back, completely at ease with her husband taking the lead.
I, on the other hand, am infuriated as the large man starts to pull my daughter forward, even as she digs in her heels in an attempt to hold her ground. Without thought, I’m down the steps in a nanosecond, growling, “Get your hand off her.”
Lionel freezes, Sylvie blinks in wide-eyed surprise and Rosemund gasps. Todd is right there, a restraining hand on my forearm to bring me up short.
“Let’s everybody stay calm,” Todd says as if a major fight is about to break out.
I glance down to where Lionel’s large hand is wrapped around Sylvie’s wrist. “I said, get your hand off her.”
Lionel doesn’t so much as release Sylvie as she instead tugs away from her grandfather. She looks up at him though and ignores me and Todd. “You can’t make me stay here. I’ll just run away.”
Thankfully, Todd has forged some sort of respectable relationship with Sylvie over the last few months because he moves to stand in front of her. Pulling his dress pants up a bit at the thigh, he squats to get eye level with her. “Sylvie… I know how hard this is for you. And I know that you have absolutely no control, which has to make everything a hundred times worse. It’s true, you could run away because you’re smart and crafty and every bit of your mother. But I want you to remember two things. This is what your mother wanted for you and she loved you more than anybody in the entire world. But more importantly, and you need to take this to heart, if you do run away, you’re going to be caught. And when that happens, there’s nowhere to go except one place that is more horrible than the option before you.”
Sylvie lifts her stubborn little chin. “And where is that?”
“Foster care. I don’t know if you know what that means since you were raised in France, but here in the United States, wayward children who can’t be controlled and don’t follow judges’ orders go into the foster care system. That means you would be placed with people you don’t know.”
Sylvie shoots me a glare. “I don’t know him.”
Todd actually smiles, amused by her proclamation. “That is true. But I do. And I can tell you your life is going to be infinitely better here than with some random strangers who may not care about you at all. I don’t want to scare you, but I’ve heard horror stories about the foster system. Trust me when I say it is not your best choice.”