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I had been sold to a monster to keep a secret.
What was Rose going to have to endure at the hands of whomever my mother deemed appropriate?
And hearing that Harrison and I didn’t have the same father.
My stoic, protective older brother, who always cared for me and Rose. He’d even shielded us from Mother when we were younger. And he was a bastard.
My heart broke for him.
Scandals like that could destroy him, not to mention make my father the laughingstock of the city.
Marco’s words from yesterday echoed in my head.
What if I just left and decided to live my own life? What if I took my life into my own hands and designed the life I wanted to live?
Could I escape the gilded decadence that defined my life? That defined my everything.
It was not like I was doing any good here.
With a determination I was pretty sure would fade the moment I left, I got dressed, stealing sweatpants and an undershirt from Luc’s drawers. I grabbed his cell phone, since mine was still at the house.
As quietly as possible, I snuck toward the front door.
When I reached the office again and had to pass the open door, Luc and his father were heavily debating someone’s involvement in a new distillery.
I glimpsed inside.
His father was still sitting at his desk, leaning back in the chair and staring at the ceiling, looking like he didn’t want to have that conversation again.
Luc was talking with a determination I hadn’t seen before. My heart raced, and I hated how even seeing the back of his head and hearing his voice was enough to make me ache for him.
It didn’t matter; he was distracted.
It was now or never.
As I was about to take a step to pass the door, he stood up, and I froze. He leaned over the desk, planting his fists on the wooden surface. His tone was lowered to a whisper, but I could hear the anger in his words. It didn’t matter what he was saying. His back was to me, and his body would block his father’s view of the door. I was able to slide by undetected.
Once I made it to the front door, the rest was easy.
It took less than forty-five minutes for me to be standing outside the Astrid mansion gate, waiting for Rose.
I was leaning against the wrought iron bars, sticking close to make sure I couldn’t be seen from the estate’s windows.
My mother’s rooms were on the other end of the mansion. Logically, I knew she wouldn’t be looking out the windows, anyway. This early on a Saturday, she would be sleeping off the hangover.
Finally, I saw Rose as she ran down the lawn in a pink dress and bare feet with two duffle bags hanging from her arms.
“Okay, this one has your phone, and like a week’s worth of clothes.” She passed the bag through the iron bars. “This one has a few high-end handbags and pieces of jewelry that you should be able to pawn for immediate cash.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me for this. All of this is yours and the maids already had it packed and ready. Thank me for calling Harrison.” She shrugged.
“You what?” I had told her not to tell anyone. I needed to be gone before anyone knew to look for me. “Is he going to tell Mother?”
Fuck, I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if she caught me. “Or is he calling Luc?”
“Oh, it’s Luc now?” She raised a brow at me.
