I cupped his hand on my cheek, realizing I’d longed all my life to hear those words, to find someone who would care about me and put me first—always me.
But I’d never wanted him to have been with my mother, to be soiled by the one woman who clearly had never thought of me, but only of herself. And I also hated him a little for having been the one to show it to me.
“Kip.”
He kissed me then, the kiss as tender as his touch had been, and I wanted to melt. I wanted to forget it all. I wanted to have a chance at this, but…
“Promise me that you’ll give me a chance to love you one day.”
The phone vibrated in my clutch and he felt it against his leg, I knew that. “We have to go, don’t we?”
I nodded. “The police will be here soon, and you don’t want to miss the show, right?”
I had been saved by the cell—and couldn’t be more grateful because I couldn’t promise him anything.
Touching his lips, I stole a kiss simply for me. I needed that one thing to remember him by, and it was the only time I managed to cut it out, all out: his revenge, my mother, the cheating.
There we were Belle and Kip; two people who had been meant to be—in another life time.
Pulling him along, the Marble Hall darkened the moment we entered. I knew what was coming, knew exactly how painful the pictures would be, but that didn’t stop me from looking up as photographs were projected in huge frames on the wall while the confession my mother had made started to play in a loop around us.
For a moment there was utter silence, shocked faces turning to the photos they saw, and I felt Kip squeeze my hand tighter.
He leaned in. “Don’t look at them, please…” I knew his face wouldn’t be in any of them, but I recognized the tats on the hand in my mother’s hair.
I recognized it when it lay on her naked back.
I didn’t recognize the dick going into her ass, nor did I recognize it when it rubbed across her.
His fingers slipped from mine as I pulled away, and it didn’t matter how much he tried to reach for me again. This was the end of the life my mother knew.
This was the end of the life I knew.
And it also was the end of Kip and me, because we no longer needed to fake anything.
Whispers started out while my mother screamed somewhere to my right. I didn’t care, I didn’t listen.
I knew she was trying to talk away all the pictures, but there was nothing she could say, nothing she could do to make anyone believe she hadn’t done what the pictures were proving.
My mother was a cheater and a kidnapper, and that, truly was the end of it.
Kip
Anabelle vanished in the crowd of dark bodies. One moment I’d kept track of her, the next her blonde head mixed with the other blondes.
I wanted to stop this all. That moment, I wanted none of this to happen.
Yes, Corinne had ruined my life. She’d caused me to almost starve on the streets just by making it impossible for me to find a job, but that paled compared to what I was currently losing.
I should have known starting anything with Belle would be stupid.
Then again, none of it had been real.
And yet, to me, it had been because damn, she was the angel I was worshipping, the little girl I’d known I harbored feelings for before I even knew what it felt like to love.
I thought revenge knew no love, but I was wrong.
So very wrong.
The big winged doors opened from all sides and the police came in. We knew that there wasn’t much they’d do after taking Corinne in. Her crime most likely didn’t matter anymore because too much time had passed, but it would get my record cleared, and I’d wanted nothing more.
Now though, I wanted her daughter. I wanted her so much, it made my heart ache.
The lights turned on and everyone stared. There was a small group here, only thirty or forty people, and most of them I didn’t know by name or had ever seen before, but they all stared at one masked woman almost in the middle.
“Corinne Jones, you’re under arrest,” one cop called and I diverted my eyes from the one they charged to the one she’d allowed to be kidnapped.
It took a while until I made her out, mainly because she was hidden away in a corner, talking to what I assumed to be her stepfather. I didn’t think Corey was going to push her away, but I wanted to be there, wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to worry.
The silence in the room was unnerving as all you could hear were the cops moving through the crowd as people made room.
Corinne turned, trying to find her daughter, I assumed. Or maybe me. It didn’t matter if she realized who I was or not.
The split second I’d not watched Belle had vanished. I didn’t think the police was allowing anyone to leave, but that didn’t mean…
Nope, there she was, standing almost directly behind her mother as they cuffed her. Turmoil broke out and people talked over one another, the noise now deafening. I couldn’t make out what Belle said to her mother, and yet…
I didn’t doubt she needed someone by her side.
I moved in, and when her eyes met mine, Corinne started screaming like a banshee. She lunged for me, still detained, and it was almost a pleasure to see that.
“You… You ruined my life!”
I nodded. “Just like you ruined mine. Picking up a poor boy from the streets. You taught me to survive. I taught you that
