Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
The car has a broken exhaust system. Your dad made the confession that the money for its repair – they ended up using it to pay for your suite at the hotel.
“But he’s okay, right?” I looked at Mr. Prescott, but I didn’t really see him. “He’s just sick, right?”
“Aria...”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to hear it.” I couldn’t bear to hear it. To think it. To imagine it.
“I’m sorry, Aria. I’ll take you to the hospital.”
I didn’t want to. God help me, I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to see because then it would mean—-
“Please...” My voice broke. “At least, please tell me, please lie to me, please just tell me it didn’t hurt for him.”
“It didn’t hurt.”
I looked at Mr. Prescott.
“He wouldn’t have felt a thing.”
I closed my eyes and my mind recreated the scene.
Ashton waving at me. “I love you.”
Me waving back at him. “I love you.”
And then they were driving away.
Ashton falling asleep as our parents talked about where they would go. Amelie choosing a fancy restaurant, Dan telling Ashton to stay and not leave the car while they go out for a very, very, very short while. Ashton nodding and meaning it because he was a good boy. The cutest, sweetest boy in the world.
Ashton, forcing himself to open his eyes to wave at them. Because, you know, he was the cutest, sweetest boy in the world. I love you, Mom. Dad.
And my parents waving back – no, no, no, they would have hugged him. Kissed him. They had to. They were his parents. They should have known, unconsciously, and they would have made him feel loved instead of making him feel like the burden I knew they thought he was.
I love you, Ashton.
I love you, kiddo.
Yes, that was what they would have said.
Then Ashton fell asleep, forever and ever.
The...End.
I opened my eyes.
I tried to speak, but somehow I couldn’t. Like my voice, my stupid, beautiful voice, was a poison that would kill me if I spoke a word.
“Aria?”
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Prescott, for being so good at lying.
Thank you. I tried to tell him with my eyes because I could no longer speak.
IT WAS ANOTHER PERFECTLY ordinary million-dollar event. Expensively catered food, gorgeous décor, and a private resort. The guests invited to Jacqueline Koufos’ official debut in society, her eighteenth birthday, had been to a hundred other affairs like this. The only special thing about the event was that everyone knew Jacqueline had just been dumped by the Samaras’ heir, Eugene.
Or at least it was until a man, riding a powerful custom-made Harley Davidson under him, flew into the scene like a black and silver streak of fireworks.
The roar of his bike was the first thing they heard, coming from the back of the resort, where the beach was. It drowned out the sound of crashing waves, the clinking of glasses, and the polite laughter from the crowd.
Everyone stopped what they were doing, turning with gasps and screams of shock and horror as the man and his beast-like bike flew right over their heads—-
A female guest shrieked, “The cake—-oh my God, the cake, he’s going to crash into the cake!”
But instead the mysterious rider landed a foot away from the magnificent four-layered cake, the space perfectly calculated for him to execute a magnificent 360-degree spin with his bike’s rear wheel before turning around again to face the crowd.
The rider took off his helmet.
The guests burst into wild applause as they recognized the rider. Kellion Argyros. The heir of one of Greece’s mightiest political clans.
Women sighed and simpered, what they did depending on whether they were single or not. Kellion Argyros was just eighteen years old, but oh, those smoldering looks of his, and the famous green eyes of the Argyros – it didn’t matter how young he was. The way he looked at them, with that all-knowing smirking gleam in his eyes...and that body. Oh, it was impossible that hard muscular body could have one inexperienced bone in it—-
He was one of them, but he didn’t feel like them. Rich people were supposed to embrace idleness, but Kellion Argyros had always embraced life at its most dangerous.
And oh, when he spoke – it was always like he was toying with them. And my oh my – if it was Kellion, then it wasn’t a problem. They would so love to be played by him.
All these thoughts were clear to Kellion. It wasn’t as if any of the females around him were making an effort to hide what they felt, and it made him smile. One so wicked and dazzling it made their bodies throb even more. None of them realized that his smile was just for show, but even if they did, Kellion doubted any of them would care.