Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
When I got to the door and slid on my coat, ready to brave the New York weather, Rose leaned out of what looked like a study. Her face was white as a sheet as she motioned for me to follow her.
I should have ignored her.
I should have turned around, finished buttoning up my coat and left, but there was this morbid curiosity. What was this little angel going to say to me? Would she yell, cry, or beg? I just had to know what she intended to say.
I went into the room, closing the door behind me and subtly flipping the lock on the doorknob.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a priest?” she hissed between her lips. She sounded far too much like her mother when she did that. Good, it would remind me who she really was, and why I was here.
I took a step toward her, shrugging my shoulders like it wasn’t of any consequence, like she had asked me why I hadn’t told her my favorite color was red.
“Because I thought you knew. I took you into the rectory under the church. I thought it was fairly obvious. How was I to know you wouldn’t make the simple connection?”
“It was really dark. I couldn’t tell where we were,” she said, backing up another step.
I mirrored her step with another one forward, angling my body just enough so I was herding her toward an empty spot on the wall.
“My turn to ask a question. Why didn’t you tell your mommy what happened to you?”
She took another step back, angling her body to the side a bit, so I was directly in front of her.
“Because I didn’t want her to worry,” she lied.
“Bullshit, your mother has never been worried about anyone other than herself once in her entire life. You being attacked by a bunch of thugs wouldn’t have affected her reputation at all. If anything, she would have played it up for sympathy. So why didn’t you tell your mommy what happened to you?”
Her cheeks got red as she opened and closed her lips. I noticed she did that a lot when she didn’t know what to say, like if maybe she just opened her mouth, the words would come to her.
“I–I–” she stammered. It was actually kind of cute.
“What’s wrong, princess? Did Mommy not give you permission to speak?” I taunted, and her jaw clamped shut as she glared at me for a moment.
“If you must know, I didn’t tell her because I didn’t want her to freak out and lock me in my room.”
“Your mother would punish you for being attacked?”
“My mother would punish me for breathing her fucking air,” she fired back, and I had to admit there was a small part of me that was a little impressed that she swore. A swelling of something warm spread in my chest as she stood up for herself, almost like I was a little proud of her for it. I was definitely amused by it.
“Such a dirty mouth on you. Does your mommy know that her little princess has the mouth of a whore?” I taunted.
After our little encounter, I had spent hours trying to figure out what the best play was with Rose. I hadn’t expected her to be so different from everyone else I knew in these circles. There was no way I could have expected her. I needed to re-evaluate the way she was going to be most useful.
Obviously, I was going to corrupt the innocent little girl, and I was going to make her completely inappropriate for any society match. That went without saying, but I wanted to figure out the most effective way to truly bring Mary Quinn down using Rose. After all, just turning her sweet little Rose into a slut would not be enough.
There were too many ways to spin it so it wouldn’t destroy Mary Quinn at all.
She could claim her daughter had an addiction and send her to rehab, where it would be just as easily forgotten as the next inevitable society scandal.
Mary Quinn’s reputation had already survived so much, because she was crafty, manipulative, and ruthless. I needed to have something she couldn’t spin. I knew Rose was the way to do it, and so far, the best path that I had come up with was turning the sweet, innocent little Rose against her mother.
It wouldn’t be hard. Everyone who paid attention knew Mary Quinn was a shit mother. Just the stories the staff had overheard Amelia telling Luc were enough for me to know that if the truth came out, it would destroy Mary Quinn. But I couldn’t be the one to bring that truth out. If anyone remembered what Mary Quinn accused me of, it would seem self-serving, too heavy-handed and too easy to see through.