Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 85552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
That depends. How many hearts do you hear coming from the bedroom?
He frowned. Even if I told you, Camille, you would still want to see. You would think I was lying.
Would you lie to me if it meant I would stay with you?
He looked away from me. Definitely.
I chewed the inside of my cheek. Please. Let’s get this over with. I want to go to Ethan.
Xander took me down the hallway.
I counted ten steps.
He stopped at the bedroom’s door. Taking a deep beath, he grabbed the doorknob and slowly opened the door without a sound.
I twisted my face toward the room, anticipating this final answer, one that would alter the direction of my life forever.
The window’s curtains were wide open. The light of the two moons traveled in through the glass. Ethan lay asleep in bed. He’d grown a shaggy black beard.
Gruff snores escaped his lips.
A glass of water rested on the table next to him. I knew he would drink it right in the morning before getting out of bed. He was always thirsty. It was just one of those weird things I loved about him.
I drew that love into my heart, needing to hold on to those old memories of our marriage and all the things we’d shared—our first kiss, the first time we made love, the night he’d proposed, the morning I discovered I was pregnant.
Those were the only memories Ethan and I would have now, because on the other side of him a woman slept, a beautiful lady with dark brown hair and a round, protruding belly, announcing a new life grew inside.
Xander whispered in my head. Please don’t cry.
I touched my cheeks and was startled to find tears on my fingers. I hadn’t even known I was crying. I’d been too busy gazing upon the life I’d freely given away.
Don’t think like that, Xander’s voice sounded threatening in my head. Camille, your life is just beginning.
Still, I couldn’t stop feeling like my heart had been ripped out of my body and a deep, aching void remained in its place, forever lost in an abyss of hopelessness and regret.
Had my heart not been beating against my chest, I truly would have confirmed that it was not there.
He could have told me in a letter. . .Not just. . .stop writing. . .
So many dark and twisted thoughts raced through my head.
How stupid had I been to think that he would still be loyal? Why did I think our marriage would still mean something to him, after I left to go to the Quiet King? How fast had he moved on?
Slowly, Xander closed the door.
I rubbed away my tears with shivering hands.
I want to see my girls. . .please.
We arrived at my daughters’ room in a blur.
The aroma of binberry cookies captured me again.
Are my girls happy. . .with her?
The pain in my heart felt like a million tiny knives tearing me apart from the inside, slicing through fragile threads of love leaving me shattered and empty, beyond the point of ever being able to repair the broken pieces of my soul.
Xander opened the door and set me down so I could walk over to their bed.
Babies, are you happy?
More tears streamed down my face.
They slept together and clutched cornhusk dolls with tiny pink clothes. Their auburn hair was everywhere, along with their bodies. Lily had a tiny birthmark on her right cheek. She lay upside down in the bed with her foot on top of Rose’s head. I stifled a giggle at the sight.
My babies are so big.
Colorful drawings covered every space on the wall. Stuffed animals and dolls crowded the room. A plate with cookie crumbs sat on a huge dresser.
I stepped toward it and spotted a picture within a large frame. It was a picture of Ethan and me holding hands, but I couldn’t remember taking it.
I walked closer and suddenly realized the woman had brown hair, not auburn. It wasn’t me at all. It was Ethan’s new wife.
The frame had the words, We love you, Mom and Dad written at the bottom in pink.
No.
I grew dizzy and hugged my stomach, hoping I could steady myself. I wanted to double over and scream in pain.
It’s all gone. . .my life. . .no more. . .
I scanned the room and saw no photos of me, no memory that told my girls who their mother was.
Ethan!
My fingers itched to pull out my wooden dagger and stab him over and over in his chest. Blood. That was what I wanted to see now. Lots and lots of blood. All over his face. All over his new wife. Blood spraying from all his wounds.
Did you ever love me?
I calmed myself, knowing that violence wasn’t the answer. If I killed Ethan, then the girls would wake up to it.
Could I do it quietly?