Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“Why didn’t you then?” I snarled.
Something broke inside me. Some part of me unraveled, and all the cool calm that I’d managed to keep in check for so many years just went up in smoke.
“Why didn’t you tell me who you were, Monica? I came here at least once a month for two years. I stood at your bar. I played pool. We joked and laughed and gambled. You gave me advice. I dropped my problems on your doorstep. You laughed about my issues with my father. All while hiding behind the fact that you had been married to the man! That you’d left me! That he’d apparently forced you out of my life!” I couldn’t hold back the shouts as I raged against the woman before me. “How could you look at me—knowing I was your son, knowing what I was going through—and say nothing?”
Monica didn’t back down. She didn’t even flinch at my outburst.
Instead, she stepped forward, and she put her arms around me. I struggled against her for a second, but she held steady. She didn’t let me go. Now, after all this time, when I wanted to be left alone, she wouldn’t let me go.
“I’m sorry,” she said firmly. “I’m so sorry.”
I cracked again and slowly put my arms around her, too.
“I should have been there. I should have told you. You’re right. You’re so right.”
“Why?”
“At first, I was afraid that you’d reject me,” she said, pulling back to look up into my eyes. “I thought you’d see the woman I’d become… and walk out. Or that you’d believe whatever your father had said or that you’d become him in my absence. I didn’t want you to run away. I wanted to get to know you. And I’m so glad that I did.” She brushed my cheek with her fingers. “You’re nothing like him, Camden. You are your own man. Despite all he has done to hurt you, you’ve never let him break you.”
“I wanted you there.”
“I wanted to be there,” she admitted. “After I got to you, I admit to selfishness. We had a relationship. Albeit not the one that I’d wanted. But it was more than I had ever dreamed of having. I worried if I revealed myself, then Carlyle would find out, and he would try to silence me again. Then I worried that… I would ruin our friendship. It was selfish, all of it, and I’m so sorry.”
I wanted to break away from her. I wanted to curse at her. I wanted to escape and never look at this moment again. But she’d gone through enough. We both had. At the end of the day, didn’t we deserve this after all we’d endured with my father?
So, I pulled her in for a hug and just held her. I held her without a word. Just the two of us for the first time in forever.
When we finally pulled apart, she brushed another stray tear with a laugh. “This is the most I’ve cried in years.”
“Thank you…for finally telling me.”
“Oh, Camden, I should have done it ages ago. Things were so complicated. I knew that my reasons for not telling you were right, but you not knowing was wrong. I… I just had to tell you today. I couldn’t let you sit there and think that you were like your father. Not when you were protecting Katherine at all costs. Even when she didn’t want your protection, you were still there. That is the opposite of your father.”
I ran a hand back through my hair. “I can’t believe he did all of that to you… and at the same time, I can totally see him controlling you to the point that he made you want to leave.”
She glanced down and back up again. “Well, that… that wasn’t all of it.”
The way she’d said it made something burn up inside of me. It was fear. “What did he do?”
“He… he was abusive,” she said finally. “At first, he’d grab me and shake me, but it got worse. It wasn’t as if I could get a restraining order or anything. He owned the whole city. No one would have believed me. No one would have convicted him.”
“That son of a bitch,” I snarled. “I’ll kill him.”
Monica reached out and grasped my arm. “Please, don’t do anything rash. It’s long since over. I just want a relationship with you.”
“You don’t know the half of what he’s done in his life. This is just… the icing on the cake. The point where I’m fed up with his absolute bullshit. He’s done nothing but push me down my entire life. A bully trying to keep others in line. Well, I won’t stand by and let him do this any longer.”
“Camden, I know that you think you know your father, but if you go after him like this, he will try to ruin you,” she said desperately. “It’s in his nature.”