Page 183 of Bound By Crimson
The journal. The truth.
Kai—her uncle.
Her hands trembled violently.
How could he do this?
The thought slashed through her like a knife.
How? How could he touch her, kiss her, hold her—while carrying that secret?
Who did that to someone?
She pressed her hands over her face, but it didn’t block out the shame, the horror, the betrayal eating her alive.
Editha cannot be my grandmother. I cannot be a product of this family.
But she was.
The blood in her veins said so.
She pulled her knees up as far as her belly would allow, curling in on herself like she could make herself smaller, invisible.
They had been watching her. Studying her. Photographing her.
Manipulating every step of her life like she was some pawn in a game she never even knew she was playing.
Had they killed her parents? Had they planned all of this from the beginning?
Her throat tightened until she could barely breathe.
I’m just a piece of property to them. A vessel. A bloodline to claim.
Tears slipped down her cheeks.
Her hands flattened over the curve of her belly protectively. Her son. Her innocent son.
She would not let them have him.
She would not let him become another Thornwick.
The silence in the room pressed against her, thick and heavy.
She could almost feel the house breathing around her, listening. Waiting.
“I’m gonna get you out of here,”she whispered, her voice cracking.“Just like my mother did for me.”
The silence pressed in around her.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. Wiped the tears away with the back of her shaking hand.
“I swear it,”she whispered fiercely, the words slicing the stillness.“I don’t know how. But I will.”
Even if it killed her. Even if it meant tearing the whole house down brick by brick.
Not in this house. Not in this name. Not ever.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
