Page 74 of Little Hearts

Their mother had been his first victim.

That night was supposed to be the best of his life. His first time with his first love. Katy was beautiful and the most popular girl at their school. The joining of their bodies had been amazing, he’d been riding such a high, felt wanted and loved for the first time in his life. Until the phone call. He’d left the room to take a shower, hoping she’d join him, but she’d said she was tired, so he’d left her in his bed. When he’d returned to his room he’d caught the end of her phone call. She was laughing with her friend about how she’d gotten him into bed. About how she was going to use him to get everything she wanted. About possibly tricking him into marriage by claiming she was pregnant and then receiving a huge settlement when she filed for divorce.

Andrew had never felt such rage before. It was like all the emotions he had bottled up his entire life came bubbling up. He had wanted to hurt her, beat her face over and over again until she was an unrecognizable, bloody mess. Instead, he had coldly informed her that her scheme wouldn’t work and thrown her out.

Then he’d seen that woman.

His so-called mother.

She had tried the same exact ploy with his father only it had worked. She had wound up pregnant and with more money than she could ever dream of.

His temper had exploded, fury consumed him, and before he had known what he was doing he had his mother naked and sobbing in his bed.

Then Aggie had called from her little sleepover, insisted on coming home, and his mother had left to collect her. Only she had never made it there. On the way her car was hit by a drunk driver, and she spent six days in a coma before their father agreed to turn off her life support. Andrew had always believed that he was the real cause of the accident. That his mother was so distracted by finally learning the gravity of what she’d done to him that she hadn’t seen the other car coming.

“They're all gone now,” he informed his sister. “You're all that’s left.”

Panic crossed her face. “Dad?”

“Dead. Why do you care?” he demanded, perplexed. “He was a sex addict. He attended meetings with a support group. That’s why he attracted so many gold-diggers. They knew he was an easy target because it was easy to get into his pants. He cheated all the time. With anyone. He didn’t care who they were as long as they were willing to have sex with him. Do you know how many women there were? I know of at least nine affairs, and another seventeen one-night stands. The world is better off without him.”

“Allgone? Clara and Naomi?”

“Messed with their car. Last I heard it hit a tree and blew up.”

“You don’t even care. About any of it. You haven’t shown any remorse.”

“I haven’t felt any.”

“Just because of how you were conceived? That’s why you did all this? Because Mom and Dad were too young to be parents to you? When you brought me here you said that you didn’t hold a grudge.”

“No,” he contradicted. “I simply said that you could hold on to a grudge or let it go, and that I didn’t believe Dad would physically hurt anyone. I chose to hold on to my grudge because it’s valid.”

Andrew had had enough talk for now. He wanted to finish up with his sister and get on the move. Aggie was waning. Their little chat had drained what little energy she had left. She was struggling for each breath, he guessed that at most she had half an hour left in her.

His sister was a beautiful woman. She looked like their mother, which was odd since she also looked identical to her half-sisters, despite the fact that they shared a father not a mother. He wanted her. Well maybe more accurately he wanted sex. Emily was dead, but Aggie was here, and pretty. What more could he want?

“What are you …” her eyes traveled to his hands as they moved to his fly, then bounced back up to his. “I'mnota gold-digger.”

“Nope, you're not, but I don’t know when I'm going to get some again. And since you ruined my chances of a final roll in the hay with Emily, I'm going to have to make do with you instead.” The idea of incest didn’t bother him, he’d already done his own mother after all.

“Andrew, don’t, please,” she begged.

Unfortunately for his sister, begging only turned him on more. Since itwashis sister and shewasn'ta gold-digger, he would try to make it quick. And he didn’t think that was going to be a problem, just thinking about it had him practically bursting.

* * * * *

12:44 A.M.

“Ugh,” Nick groaned as he struggled back to consciousness. His head was throbbing, and his stomach felt like it was ready to expel anything left in it at any second.

For a moment everything was a blank.

He didn’t know where he was, what had happened, or why he felt so awful.

Then, as though a switch had been flicked, it all came back.

Aggie.

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