Page 156 of Tangled Kisses
I didn’t realizethere’d be so much pain in heaven.
“Reese. Wake up. Now.”
A crisp female voice slices through the haze. Fingers press against my shoulder, insistent.
My eyelids drag open, the room tilting like a ship at sea. Pain hammers my skull, my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, and something tacky crusts on my cheek. I touch it with trembling fingers. Blood.
“Wake up.” The voice insists.
I blink until her face sharpens into focus. Mrs. Hale. Vander’s mother. “Mrs. Hale? How are you here?”
“Whitaker called me.” She doesn’t glance back, but I see him at the door, calm and stoic, the picture-perfect steward. On her command, he stoops to haul me upright, my legs buckling, pain radiating through my ribs.
“It’s time to go. Now. We don’t have much time before he wakes,” Mrs. Hale says.
Terror seizes my chest as I stumble back a step. “No, I can’t leave. He’ll hurt people I love. He might hurt you.”
She slips her gloves on with slow, deliberate precision. “No. He won’t. My son is terrified of me.” The words are delivered without drama, without pride—just fact.
I sag against Whitaker, trembling. “He’ll keep tracking me. I’ll never be free.”
“You will if you leave.Now.” She reaches into her bag, slides out a checkbook. Her pen scratches with practiced precision, then she tears the slip free and presses it into my hand.
I stare at it, my fingers shaking. “What is this? Hush money?”
Her lips twitch with a ghost of disdain. “Call it what you want. It makes no difference to me.”
I crumple the check in my fist. “How many of these checks have you had to write?”
Her gaze hardens, but she doesn’t answer me.
“Why do you allow it?”
She steps closer, eyes like flint. “If he dares continue this little revenge tour, he’ll be cut from the will and left with nothing. I hold the keys to the kingdom, Reese. Trust me, he cares far more about his money than he does about you. You’re safe.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, throat burning.
Her gaze doesn’t soften. “I never approved of you. Not as a choice for Vander’s wife. But I cannot condone this. Besides, the Hale family is renowned for many things, but never cruelty.”
There it is—the real reason behind her assistance. Appearances.
She steps closer, her voice as cold as steel. “Now go. Stay far away. I’ll take care of all of this. I will handle my son.”
“But what if he tries to—” My voice splinters.
“He won’t do anything,” she hisses. “I’ll make sure of it.”
The certainty in her tone should reassure me. It doesn’t. Because men like Vander don’t stay handled forever.
Whitaker presses my bag into my arms. “The driver is waiting, ma’am.”
And all I can do is nod, let them steer me toward the door, and pray she’s right.
Whitaker’s grip is steady as he guides me down the hallway. My knee throbs, each step a fresh lance of fire.
Through the haze, I spot the security guards from last night posted by the doors. Their eyes track me, blank, unreadable. Not one moves to intervene. Not one lifts a hand to stop Whitaker.
That tells me everything I need to know.
