Page 31 of Thrill Me (Dark Odyssey 3)

“Precious?” I counter. “What the fuck is the matter with you? Why would you say that to me?”

He leans close to me like he wants me to see him fully, how serious he is.

“You picked him, Mimi. Not me,” he states with emphasis. “If we’re such good friends babygirl, you would have always known how I felt about you.”

He moves back and that chill that ran down my spine moments ago scatters across my body.

Truth is truth and no one can refute that.

He’s right and I can’t refute any part of the accusation.

All I can do is watch him as he turns and walks away from me.

Part of me did know how he felt about me.

So why didn’t I do anything about it? Why would I have known something like that and go after Gabe instead?

Maybe I… I don’t know. Anything I think now is going to feel like I’m just making up excuses. But damn it, I cling to the excuse I always find and it’s always about her. Mom.

Always.

Maybe I was more fucked up than I realized even from back then and never wanted to get close to anybody too precious to me. Like her.

Everyone thinks that my mother had an accident, but I’ve carried the secret of the truth very few people know.

Everyone else thinks she fell off the balcony at home and drowned in the pool. I would have believed it too if I hadn’t found the suicide note.

Maybe the part of me that would have been able to do the logical thing and go for the guy who always held my heart died that day when I realized mom’s death wasn’t an accident.

She left the world and left me.

Left me without saying goodbye.

It was me who found her dead in the pool too.

Chapter Nine

Mimi

I knewthe next day was going to be shit from the minute I opened my eyes in the morning.

I just knew.

So when I got a missed call from the realtor and a voice message asking me to call back, I knew it was going to be bad news.

It totally was.

Apparently the owners of the building I wanted to lease for the restaurant have decided they no longer wanted to lease it. They want to sell the entire complex. It’s down to a family emergency that’s required this drastic shift of arrangements.

That would be all good and well to have the entire complex and call it my own. Except I don’t have the three million they’re asking for.

Jesus Christ.

My skin must have set ablaze the minute I heard it. I’d gone from thinking I had the money to make this dream of mine come true to this morning when it just blew up in my face.

Three million…

Three fucking million…

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