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Bella
“Bella, love, why did you say that to the police” Alfie followed me as I walked out of the police station into the afternoon light.
I sucked down a deep breath. It had been close and suffocating inside. I sank down on a bench and tried to calm my racing heart.
My father stood in front of me. “I was getting you out of there. Why wouldn’t you take that chance?” he demanded as the detective who’d questioned me sauntered down the path. “Detective, please, you’ve got to listen to me,” Alfie said, turning his attention to the police officer.
“Sir, we’ve nothing more to go on if your daughter maintains she’s with Stone Preston because she wants to be,” the detective said flatly.
“You don’t understand. She’s confused. I told her to get close to him, indulge him. I thought it would make it easier for both of us if the man thought she fancied him back… it was just an act,” Alfie bit out.
I pushed to my feet, my eyes fixed in horror on the broad figure standing behind the detective. Stone watched me with an unreadable expression. The detective looked at me and shrugged.
“You wanna change your side of the story, Miss?” he asked, sounding done with the whole thing.
I shook my head mutely, and he nodded, turning away to light a cigarette.
Alfie saw Stone and flushed. “What did you threaten her with? Why is she lying?” he demanded, getting all up in Stone’s face. “Did you threaten my safety? Hers?”
“I threatened no one,” Stone said, his eyes still fixed on me.
I couldn’t speak. I felt like all my words were trapped in my chest and couldn’t break free. Would Stone think I had been pretending because of my father? How would I convince him I wasn’t? It was too crazy to start with, too quick, too sudden… falling in love with someone in a week was bizarre, and then adding in the circumstances we’d met under didn’t make sense, even if I knew it was true.
“Isabella. Can we talk?” Stone asked.
My mouth went dry. I nodded and followed as he turned away from my father, who was still cursing his rotten luck.
He grabbed my arm as I passed. “Bella, love, I was just trying to help you.”
I wrenched my arm violently from his grip. “You’re only ever trying to help yourself, so save it. I’m not interested,” I snapped.
Alfie paled, clearly shocked by my words. “Bella-,”
“I get you lost Mom because of me, but I never asked to be born, and I certainly never wanted to grow up without a mom. You’ve put me in shit situations again and again, and when I finally find something good–you try to ruin it. I won’t let you. Not this time. I don’t think we should see each other for a while.”
I turned away from my father before he could reply. I couldn’t take it. My heart felt like it was breaking at the thought that my selfish Dad had finally cost me something I couldn’t bear to lose. Stone, and his high regard. Nothing felt more important than making him understand I had been genuine.
He was waiting by the passenger side door of his sleek Phantom and opened it as I approached. I slid inside and watched him prowl around the front and get in. He had his gloves on, and I watched the black leather flex as he started the car and directed it out of the lot.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you home,” he said quietly.
My stomach dropped. The house I’d grown up in with my father felt less like home than Thorn Hill, even after only a few days. It was because of Stone. His presence made me feel at home. A silent tear squeezed out the corner of my eye. Jumbled and confused words clogged my throat, and I couldn’t speak. I turned to look out the window as we drove from the city and returned to familiar-looking suburbs.
“My father said—"
“I heard what he said.” Stone’s voice was devoid of emotion. That eerie still mask was back in place, the one he’d worn the night we first met.
“He’s not right,” I muttered.
“So he didn’t tell you to seduce me? He didn’t tell you to get in my good graces and charm me?” he prodded.
I swallowed a knot of protest in my throat.
Stone glanced at me and took in my guilty expression. He nodded. “Right.”
“It didn’t happen that way,” I whispered.
“I don’t care,” Stone said simply.
I clenched my fists in my lap, hard enough that my nails cut in. Blood welled from the base of my thumb, and I watched it. I could hear my father’s voice in my head–reminding me not to get hurt or do anything that would mark my beauty queen skin. Without thinking, my nail dug in again, making an even longer line. Fuck it. Fuck perfect beauty. Fuck invisible scars. Why shouldn’t they show?
“Stop that, Bella, or I’ll make you,” Stone said quietly from beside me.
A tear dripped down my nose. I hadn’t realized he’d been watching me. I relaxed my hand and looked out the window again.
When we got to the turning for my side of town, Stone turned the opposite way. I figured he was going around the back way, but when we got to the turnoff for the road out of town, the very one that led to the wrought-iron, imposing gates of Thorn Hill, he took it.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked again, spinning around to stare at him.
“I told you already. Home,” he said.
Hope so fierce and vivid blossomed in me, I had to hold on to the seatbelt to steady myself. “You meant your home?” I questioned, holding my breath for his response as we turned through the open gates of the estate and started the long, tree-lined drive upwards toward the house on the hill.
