AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Whatever my father was saying didn’t penetrate the panic that overtook me. I schooled my features and allowed my father to usher me inside his awaiting car without looking at Liam again. Better him think I’d betrayed him than to have him killed.
I silenced my phone as my father barked orders to his driver. I wiped away a stray tear I couldn’t hold back, hoping he hadn’t seen. He would think himself victorious for breaking me. And for the moment I was. That didn’t mean I was giving up completely. I sat back ignoring the man next to me and mentally created a list of demands I would have for this fictitious marriage.
On that list, I wished that Liam didn’t hate me. And in time, I hoped I could wish him happiness with someone else in the future. But not yet. I still held onto the incredible time we spent together as I walled off my feelings. I would need to have a stone heart to survive my future.
“Where are we going?” I finally asked as we pulled into a residential area.
I didn’t think he would answer, so when he said, “Riverdale, specifically Fieldston. I would have preferred the Hamptons, but this will have to do.” I was surprised.
The name Riverdale sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place where. Still, it wasn’t the destination I expected. “I thought we’d be going to Chicago.”
From the news, airlines were cancelling flights left and right. Though I didn’t think my father was flying commercial. The likely scenario was a charter flight. Those could be harder to come by as well.
He clasped his hands together. I didn’t know what to make of that. “We are.” Instead of continuing he went another direction. “I think your mother would have gotten a kick out of this place. I would have bought her something like it in Chicago if she hadn’t run. Instead, she ended up with that little two-bedroom shack in Hart’s Falls.”
It annoyed me that he considered the town I grew up in unworthy. I loved our little house there. “You expected her to stay after finding out on the news you were married,” I fired back at him.
He chuckled. “Isn’t that interesting that she found that out on the news, yet somehow didn’t know before.”
Without moving my head, I took sight of his ringless finger out of the corner of my eye. Mom told me he’d never worn one and that she didn’t regularly pay attention to the news, between working full time and school.
“You just assumed she’d be okay being your mistress,” I scoffed.
“She would have been well taken care of. So would you. The best schools…”
“My life turned out pretty fantastic without you.”
“Yet you called me. Besides, who do you think funded your little life?” I stopped short of saying anything else. “Your mother and I came to an agreement.”
“But she worked her ass off,” I spluttered.
“She didn’t have a choice when I bought that little house she rented. As the new owner, I could have raised her rent.”
I wanted to punch him in his face but didn’t think it would end well.
“She didn’t tell you that?” he asked.
I chose not to comment as I gritted my teeth. I hated him. I hated him so damn much.
He got a call shortly before we pulled into the driveway of a sprawling house. I couldn’t hear what was said to him. The only thing he said in reply was, “Let him come.”
Did that mean my future husband was also in town?
Two
Liam
Late winter snow was a blessing and a curse. Hopefully, it masked me trailing the car Natalie was in despite fewer cars on the road. It also made driving trickier. I had to keep my speed slower and not knowing the area also hampered my ability to be stealthy.
When we pulled into a residential area, I had to hang back farther, risking not seeing what house he pulled into and if that was their destination. For all I knew, I’d been spotted, and they were going to lose me in the tangle of streets.
About a block and a half ahead of me, they turned into a circular driveway of a house that could have doubled for a small medieval castle with a turret and all.
I pulled off to the side in front of another mini mansion. Thankfully, it was dark. If the homeowners weren’t home or asleep, they wouldn’t notice a truck that most likely would have belonged to a caretaker or handyman rather than a resident of this neighborhood.
Foolishly, I’d kept my eyes on the house ahead, planning my next move. A tap came at my window. A man was standing beside my car with a gun pointed at me. I hadn’t paid attention to see if someone had been trailing me.
The guy did a circular motion with his free hand. I rolled down my window slightly.
