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“Your sister,” she said, understanding my words.
“Damn right. I watched her when she was a baby. I sent her to school every day with a sandwich in her lunchbox. I hid her away when our mother died so CPS wouldn’t take her from me and force us into foster care. We were all alone in the world, we only had each other. I promised her a better life and I got so focused on making money, I forgot to look after her. She was my only human in this world and I was supposed to take care of her, Amelia. Now Elena’s dead.” I lost my breath while saying the last few words.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” she whispered. “If I had the power, I would change that, but there’s nothing anyone can do to bring her back. I’m sure the man who hurt her will be in jail soon. His run is almost over, Hunter, and your sister’s justice will be found.”
“Justice?” I could laugh at the word. “He beat her, Amelia, and then he used a kitchen knife to slit her throat and split her chest open. That fucker gets to live. How is that justice? My niece will never know her mother. How isthatjustice? I’m still here, spending my money, and my sister is in the ground. How. Is. That. Justice?”
She shivered in her chair because of the hardness of my tone. All the anger and frustration that was bottled up inside of me started to surface. Amelia didn’t deserve to be the target of all that, but she was the one poking the bear with a stick.
“I’m not saying it’s fair, but it’s how the world works. Hunter, I can see all that fury you keep close to your heart is ruining you from the inside. Your sister wouldn’t want that.”
“You didn’t know her.”
“I can’t imagine someone who loves you would want your life to be bleak. Elena would want you to live and make her daughter happy. You haven’t done anything wrong. She was the victim of a crime.”
I wanted to hurt her. Her persuasive words made me want to drag her into the bathroom and stain her skin with red marks, marks that would bring me release. I pinned my eyes unto hers, thinking about fucking her mouth, focusing on all the pleasure her body will give me later. I needed those thoughts to fight the darkness that threatened to swallow me.
“I know you don’t get it, Amelia. You didn’t have our life. I was all Elena had in the world and in the past years, I didn’t even bother to see if she was alright or run a fucking background check on the man who knocked her up. I bought her a house on the beach like she always dreamed to have, I paid for Sofi’s nursery to be designed, loaded her accounts, but didn’t even bother to call. She lectured me about it all the time, but I was always in the office, always working. It took the police four hours to get in touch with me and let me know my sister was dead because I was in a meeting with my architects. This is the man I am. I left my sister behind.
“Baby,” she said softly. “You did the best you could.”
“You don’t know our past.” I stressed the point. “Our life was filled with misery and pain. We had nothing growing up, but I always made sure Elena knew one thing. She hadme. If you think that telling me over and over that I wasn’t the one who put the knife in her neck is worth something, go ahead, waste your breath. Someone who didn’t share our world would never understand how bad I fucked up.”
Unexpectedly, her hand slapped against the table and she looked at me with a fire I’d never seen before. Her sweetness was gone, replaced by implacable determination.
“You keep saying that I can’t understand because I don’t know your past or your sister, but you don’t know mine either, Knox. You never even bothered to look, because if you did, you would have known my life was not easy either. You want me to be your punching bag to release some anger because I broke the rule and spoke about your sister? Fine, I can take it.” She rose to her feet. “I didn’t want to care for you, Hunter, but I do. There is no turning back from that. It hurts to see you put yourself down when you could stop bathing in your self-pity and haveeverything, but if my attempts to help you see that your life is not over are going to be met with hostility, then I’m done. Go ahead and live in fear. Hide behind your roleplay and collars if that helps you think you have control, but I can’t pretend I don’t see you suffering.”
“Amelia, lower your voice.”
She exhaled audibly.
“God forbid for a second that the world would see you have feelings, Hunter Knox. I’m done here. I’ll go pick up Sofi and take her home.”
“Amelia…”
“I didn’t come here to fight, Hunter. I wanted to see you because I’ve missed you. I wanted to make your day a little better. Looks like I’ve failed. I’ll see you when you get home.”
She left without allowing me to say another word, which was ironic. That used to be one of my signature moves. I felt a bitter taste in my mouth and an impulse to go follow, but Hunter Knox has never chased a woman in his life. It was better to let her cool down and fix our problems later the best way I knew how. With a whip in my hand and a chain around her neck.
