AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘It means my days of lessening myself for you are over. I resign.’ She switched her gaze to her mother. ‘And I’ll be moving out as soon as I get home. I’m grateful that you gave me a home, but I can’t...’ She stopped and cleared her throat, bunching her fists so she wouldn’t shake so much. ‘I’d rather have no love than conditional indifference.’
‘This is all absurd. Are you sure the desert heat hasn’t got to you? Look, let’s settle this properly when you’re back—’
‘I’ve never been clearer, Dad.’
His face went florid, his eyes colder than she’d ever seen them. ‘I always knew you were an ungrateful child. After all we’ve done for you—’
‘Does that include encouraging her to betray those she cares about? Consistently taking your other child’s side instead of hers? What about emotionally blackmailing your own child, Winchester? I don’t think that’s quite in the parenting manual,’ Tahir said.
Lauren’s shocked gaze swung back to him. He didn’t love her, and yet he was defending her? Was he trying to make it impossible for her heart to ever forget him? ‘Tahir, you don’t have to—’
Tahir’s nostrils flared and she spotted mild rebuke in his eyes before he shifted his attention back to her father. ‘Yes, I do. What your father forgot to say was that when I arranged yesterday to have them brought here, he tried the same tactic with me, believing I could be manipulated. Now you’re here, perhaps you can elaborate on your intentions?’
Her shocked gaze swung back to her father. ‘You really thought you could manipulate Tahir? Don’t you know that my desire to have a better relationship with you was your only leverage over me? That I sacrificed...’ She stopped unwilling to bare the true state of her tattered heart in front of Tahir, the man who’d decimated it.
Her father squirmed, and his mouth gaped but no words emerged. No words to dispute anything she’d said. Or even attempt to heal her heartache. Foolish tears brimmed in her eyes and she dashed them away.
After a minute, her father pressed his lips shut and shook his head.
‘It’s time for you to leave,’ Tahir decreed, his tone stone-cold.
Charles Winchester nodded after casting a chilling look at Lauren.
With a flick of his hand, Tahir’s aide stepped forward. Within seconds, her parents were gone.
She turned on Tahir. ‘You arranged this! You wanted it to happen, didn’t you?’
He shrugged. ‘Yes, I did.’
She couldn’t even summon the temper to grit her teeth. All her emotions were locked into thewhy, why, why?
‘Men like your father respond predictably to one thing—power. He thought me summoning him meant he could manipulate some out of me. He discovered differently.’
‘So this was all another game to you?’
His gaze hardened. ‘No, it wasn’t. I wanted you to be free of them once and for all.’
‘Why? What do you care?’
He stiffened as if she’d knifed him with the words. ‘You still don’t get it, do you? I can stand many things, but not watching you live a half-life. You needed to take back your power.’
‘And that’s all it comes down to, is it? Who holds the most power?’
His chin lifted and he cast her a look so pitying she shrivelled where she stood. ‘Don’t disparage it. Without it, you wouldn’t be here. You love what it can do for you. Once upon a time, you lobbied for it because you knew what it could do for the causes you upheld. And admit it, you love it moving between your legs when I take you.’
Heat and cold drenched her. ‘It didn’t do me a lot of good in the long run, though, did it? Just in case it wasn’t clear before, I heard what you said about not helping Matt. About me.’
Regret flashed in his eye and his jaw tightened. But in the next instant, it was gone. ‘That’s unfortunate. But it’s not why you’re running back to London. You’ve already washed your hands of your brother. As for what you overheard, perhaps you shouldn’t take things like that at face value.’
Before she could ask what he meant, he was walking away. He returned moments later with the hourglass tray.
‘What are you doing? Our twenty-four hours is over. I’m leaving.’
‘Not quite. Midnight approaches. Spin the tray one last time, Lauren.’
‘Why? What does it matter any more?’
His eyes blazed and this time something contained in them set her insides alight. ‘Because I want my life to begin, Lauren. I wantourlives to begin.’
