Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 116875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 468(@250wpm)___ 390(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 468(@250wpm)___ 390(@300wpm)
29
Bella
* * *
I storm out of my father’s lab. Kaiser’s waiting there. He probably followed our shouting down the stairs. “Is everything okay?” he asks.
“Fine,” I say in a flat voice.
My father followed me out. I turn my back on him as if he doesn’t matter.
“I’ll see you at the engagement party,” he says.
“Don’t fucking bother,” I toss over my shoulder and walk out. Fuck him.
Fuck everything.
I thought talking to my father would help, but it never does. My father stands there like a rock and lets my rage wash over him, and in the end, he’s not moved.
I hate it so much.
I hate him. He’s my only family, and I love him, but I hate how he is. I hate that I want him to be proud of me.
Well, he made it clear today that he’ll never be proud of me.
If that’s true, then I have nothing to lose.
It’s time to fully enter my supervillain era.
By the time I get to the car, all my emotion is spent, and I feel like curling into a ball under an oak tree and hibernating until the leaves cover me. I could do it, too. Kaiser would protect me.
He’s the one who watches over me, not my father. What I said was true. Everything my father told me was probably true, too. We’ve laid out the brutal facts between us, and nothing is solved.
I’m so tired.
“What happened?” Kaiser asks.
I don’t answer. I don’t look at him. He might as well be a chauffeur.
“Do you want to go to the bookstore?” He’s offering an olive branch. He’s being so sweet, and of course, he is. I drugged him to want to take care of me. “Or to Pane P’s? You wanted to try those new muffin things.”
“Cruffins.” I try to force a smile, but it doesn’t work. “Just take me home.”
My father’s voice plays over and over in my head.
You don’t live in the real world.
If you were capable of strategy…
I will spare you the details of everything they did to her…
Kaiser is merging onto the highway toward Metropolis when I sit up. “Wait. Take me to the city morgue.”
He frowns. “Why?”
“There’s something I have to do.” My breath comes faster, remembering what my father said. Livia’s body is unclaimed. It will go to a pauper’s grave as a message to everyone who would mess with the family.
I fucked up. I want to make it right. But then I realize this is nuts. What am I going to do, walk in and claim a body? I’m no relation to Livia.
I need to start thinking things through.
I slump in my seat. “Never mind.”
Kaiser hesitates. He’s doing all the right things and trying to make me feel better. All because I made him love me.
I don’t deserve him. I should tell him everything now and let him put me out of my misery.
But no. The pain I’m feeling—that’s what I deserve.
I deserve all this misery, and more.
At dusk, Kaiser finds me in the greenhouse.
“I made some calls,” he says. “Pulled some strings. Here.” He sets a plain white urn on the work table.
I stare at it, not understanding until he says, “Livia Vesuvio’s ashes. St. James called in a favor at the Metropolis morgue.”
“You were listening,” I say.
“Yes.”
I close my eyes, feeling very tired. “Cameras?”
“Yes.”
I nod. My father was right to be circumspect.
I wait until the moon rises and head out the back door of the greenhouse.
Kaiser follows me at a distance, into the forest and the orchard beyond. I don’t try to lead him into a trap. I avoid all poisonous things. I’m poisonous enough, just by myself.
I don’t want to spread the ashes; it doesn’t feel right. One day, her children will be found, and they’ll want them.
Where do I put her?
The wind picks up, rustling the leaves of the hazel tree above me. It’s a big tree—bigger than any hazel tree I’ve ever seen—with a hollow at the base of its largest branches. Someone’s hammered toe holds up the trunk.
I climb up and place the urn there. I wrapped it in a plastic bag to keep it safe from the elements or a curious squirrel. Livia will be safe up there.
When I climb back down, I lean against the tree. I feel Kaiser’s presence; he’s close, but he’s in stalker mode. Giving me space.
He’s here for me, but I have to do this alone.
You never think of the consequences, my father told me. And he’s right. I didn’t think of what would happen when Livia sought me out and begged me to sell her a poison to end her abusive husband’s life.
I couldn’t have predicted this. Would I have done it if I’d known what would happen?
I don’t know, but I think so. Because sometimes doing something right leads to bad things happening.