Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
“I want to fall asleep in your arms while you pretend you’re not as interested in Major League Soccer updates as you are. I want to fall asleep in your arms and let you take me to your bed because it’s our bed. Because you only want me sleeping with you, just like I only want you sleeping with me.”
Desire to have the picture she’s painting spreads throughout my bones; however, I maintain myself. Curl my fingers tighter together. Press them against my crotch in a willingness to distract myself with a different type of pain.
“And I want you to forgive me for making a mistake.”
My Adam’s apple slowly bobs as I swallow my unhappiness.
“Yes, I admit it…” Her tiny fingers work through the straightened strands faster. “I betrayed your trust and let Tomas into the penthouse. He called and I told him no and he told me he was hurt and couldn’t go to a hospital and put on this ridiculously scary performance over the phone that made me feel like he was going to fucking die-” she pauses to shake her head in irritation, “asshole.”
At least she can finally acknowledge that.
“He thought…I was in danger being with you. He got information from somewhere that made him think you were a serial killer, killing off all your dolls when you were done with them and that’s why he couldn’t find them, which he wanted to do to ask them questions about you – though I’m sure even if he could, they wouldn’t talk because of an NDA or something.”
She does know me.
“He thought he was saving me from being a brainwashed prisoner. He had it in his stupid, stubborn mind, that I was still this tiny, shy, fourth grader who needed her big brother to protect her from the big bad bully, but all he did was possibly ruin a relationship with the one person I want to spend forever with.”
Longing replants itself on the tip of my tongue.
“We had a long talk last night as a family about me finally having a life of my own and they…are…going to try their best to let me live it.” She gives her hair a small tug. “Tomas is still not sold, but I don’t give a shit because it’s not his life. It’s mine. And if it comes down to it…if I have to choose you or him…love or someone who has spent so much of my life manipulating me to their liking, I’m gonna choose you.” Our eyes lock allowing me to feel the power in her words. “Every. Time.”
Silence spreads throughout the area in between us as I take a moment to process the proclamations that have fled from her lips.
She’s always been loyal to a fault.
Sometimes I think that’s something I actually love about her.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise it would be her inevitable downfall with me, but it was. The pain of the stabbing paled in comparison to where the real agony lay. Now that I have her side of the story…now that she is showing me that she wants to be here – with me – that she wants the things I wanted before we were ripped apart, that ache can begin to finally fade.
Heal.
I smooth down my tie on an emotionless, “Is that all, Miss Pierson?”
“Um…,” nervousness floods her voice over not receiving the response I’m sure she was anticipating, “I think so?”
“It either is or isn’t.”
“It is.”
“Very well then.” Reaching across the desk, I flip open the folder. “I’ve kept up my end of the deal.” Shifting the pen onto the stack is followed by me stating, “Sign the highlighted portions.”
Her sigh of defeat shakes us both in our seats.
I keep my eyes focused on her trembling hand, scribbling her name and wait in utter silence for our arrangement’s ending to be finalized.
She places the writing device back on the desk beside the unused scissors and whispers, “Finished.”
Memories of our first night invade my mind threatening to make me smile. Sliding the completed paperwork to me, I close the folder, fold my hands on top of it, and reveal critical information, “Iquique. Galway. Prague.”
Her bleary eyes twitch on a confused, “Huh?”
“The dolls your brother could not find are because he doesn’t possess the proper resources.”
Zel lets her brows lift towards the ceiling.
“While my last doll, did meet an untimely demise, because playing chemist inside your body with the latest and greatest illegal substances the world has to offer isn’t a brilliant idea, the others who have less ugly addictions were relocated elsewhere per their final request at the time of our contract’s end.”
She lets her mouth crack open the slightest to grab a needed breath.
“Charlotte is in Iquique, Chile. We have no contact directly, although her and her husband have a hand in managing our properties in the vicinity. Alva is in Galway, Ireland. She sings in an Irish Folk band as well as plays the banjo. We have no contact directly; however, I have heard them play in passing. Brianna is in Prague, Czech Republic. I’m not entirely sure what she does, but if I had to make an educated guess, I would say she spends her days drinking wine and swindling tourists out of their money, something she did quite often when she still lived here in the States.”