Page 88 of Fortune's Kiss
No!No matter how fast she ran, chest heaving and lungs burning, she wasn’t getting anywhere.Yet every time she looked back, her father was closer, arms outstretched and deranged grin growing.
If he caught her, he would kill her.
Lo stumbled to the nearest closet door.She bolted through it and slammed herself against the door, pressing it shut.Her father pounded against the door, trying to force it open.
She couldn’t stay like this forever.Eventually he would overpower her.She searched for another escape, but when she glanced back, the candles flamed to life.She wasn’t in a closet at all, but a room in the hacienda.She was back home.“HELP!SOMEONE HELP!”she cried out as the door jiggled.Her father was forcing his way through.
But her sisters didn’t come running down the stairs.No servants dashed in from the kitchen.No one was coming to save her.
The door flew open, narrowly missing her face.She stumbled, but managed to stay upright and ran as fast as she could.She knew this place by heart, but of course so did her father.His fingers grazed the back of her gown, nearly taking hold of her.
“LEAVE ME ALONE!”She rushed through the kitchen, then into the dining room.
Her father sprinted ahead around the table, blocking her way.Lo backed away, and he did the same.Each time she tried to move around the table, he mimicked her movement.“Run as much as you want, but you aren’t getting away,” he shouted.“And once I catch you, you’ll never leave my sight ever again.”He smashed his fists against the table, knocking over emptyglasses and plates.Their shatters on the floor were as loud as gunshots.“You’ll marry Juan Felipe and it’ll be a grand wedding.”Church bells echoed through the room.“I told him to do whatever is necessary to make you submit.Oh, but don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll calm down once you start birthing children.Even Loretta did.For a little while.”
Lo gripped the table as a wave of nausea washed over her.The wail of a newborn baby grated inside her ears.Had the births of her and her sisters broken Mamá’s spirit?Or had her father tried to use them as leverage for Mamá to stay?The room spun.
If she married Juan Felipe and had his children, the cycle would continue.
And she would rather die than have that happen.
“Now get over here!”Her father flipped the table.Lo scrambled away from the shattering glass and thudding chairs.
He snatched her arm and slammed her against a shelf.A huge pot fell inches away from her and shattered.This was the spot where she had killed him.He was supposed to be dead.
“STAY AWAY FROM ME!”She pulled the letter opener out of its place in her bodice.She plunged it deep into his chest.
He stumbled back, releasing her.Lo yanked the dagger out.Blood sprayed everywhere, but she stabbed him again and again.
Thiswas for the years of torment he had put her through.Stab.
Thiswas for brainwashing her sisters with his conditional love.Stab.
For making Mamá his prisoner.Stab.
It was his fault she had left.His fault Lo was like this.His fault she was broken.
Stab.
Stab.
STAB!
At some point they both ended up on the floor, in a puddle of his blood.
Suddenly the room changed.She was no longer in the hacienda.The soft orange glow from hundreds of candles revealed that she was back in Fortune’s Kiss, red door once again looming before her like a prize earned with blood.The body didn’t belong to her father.Another man lay dead at her feet.
Lo gasped and clutched the bloodied letter opener tighter.
She couldn’t stay here.With trembling fingers, she pulled open the door and rushed through it.
Warm humid air curled around her as she stepped onto pearlescent tiles.Waterfalls flowed from the walls into a large pool.Milky beams of moonlight drifted down through the glass ceiling, reflecting off the water like a mirror.
Her shoulders drooped.There was nothing in here that could help her destroy the house.And yet—she couldn’t take her eyes off the pool.Her breath hitched and her heart raced.Something about it drew her closer.
She took off her shoes and descended the steps leading into the water.She dipped her toes in and felt her anxieties and rage swirl into something else: a delicious warmth that enveloped her skin.With a sigh, she closed her eyes.
A flicker of light caught her eye.On a nearby table, golden hair pins glimmered in the moonlight.There was no time to question it.She quickly pinned up her curls, then stripped off her dress and tossed the bloodied mess aside before descending into the warm waters.
