The Scarlett Legacy (Woodland Creek)(39)

Stepping backward, she didn’t stop until her legs touched the edge of her new bed. She sat down with nowhere else to go.

“Go away,” she whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear her.

Evie sat there praying until the footsteps walked away.

Evie covered her heart and tried to calm herself. Her pulse was too fast. Her breaths were quickened as well.

She couldn’t live like this.





OLIVIA WOULD NEVER let Wes go again. Being home was like a dream. After all that she had suffered at the hands of Avalon, she wanted to stay home in bed, her arms wrapped around Wes as he held her.

She ran her hands through his hair, watching as the black strands fell perfectly back into place.

His face had cleared of all traces of the curse. Her handsome man was back to normal. Her wounds would heal.

Life would return to the way it once was before the war with the Prince family.

Who am I kidding?

Evie had taken her place as Avalon’s prisoner.

How long before he hurts her?

“We should get ready for dinner with your mother,” Olivia said.

“I know. We have so much to discuss now that you’re home and feeling well.”

He got out of bed and headed to their wardrobe. Olivia sat up. Her neck was sore. She touched the soft flesh, tracing where the rope had been wrapped around her throat.

Her eyes squeezed shut as she tried making the memories fade.

“I wish we could just stay in bed together and let the pressures of the world fade away.”

“Do you want to rest awhile longer? My mother will understand if you do.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, leaving the warmth of their large king bed.

She stretched her sore arms and pulled her T-shirt over her head. She snatched a blue shift dress from the wardrobe and stepped into it.

“I don’t feel like doing anything to my hair,” she said as she looked at her pale reflection in the mirror hanging on the inside of the wardrobe door. She reached for a pearl necklace that hung from her jewelry rack attached to the other wardrobe door and clasped it around her neck.

“I promise we won’t judge you for going to dinner casual tonight, baby.”

Olivia snorted. “I can hear Adelaide complaining already. I’d rather not hear her mouth tonight.”

“Come now. She understands that you risked your life for Evie and me.”

“Look at the good that did. I didn’t help the situation in any way. All I did was send Evie right into our enemy’s arms. I’m sure she hates me now,” Olivia said bitterly.

The way Evie had looked at her when she was allowed to leave was heartbreaking.

The girl really did love her like a sister. There had been true worry in Evie’s eyes when she saw Olivia leave. She wished that she could have stayed behind and made sure Evie was well taken care of.

“Tomorrow I’m going to see if Evie is okay.”

Olivia shook her head, fear flashing in her eyes. Memories of being left hanging upside down in a glass cage shattered her composure.

She screamed. “No!”

Wes caught her in his arms.

“Baby,” he breathed, holding her tight. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay! You have to stay away from him. If you go over there… he won’t let you leave alive. He told us what would happen if we didn’t stay away.”

Wes smoothed her hair. “I know,” he said, sighing. “How is he so strong? I need to learn his weakness.”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to test him again.”

“I can’t leave my sister with him.”

Olivia wiped her eyes. “I saw how he looks at her. There is genuine feeling there. He doesn’t want her just to upset you. He really cares for her.”

Wes frowned. “I still don’t like it.”

Olivia held onto him. “I don’t either. Men care for the women they abuse all of the time. It doesn’t make them any less dangerous.”

The six o’clock bell rang and they knew it was time to head down to the secondary dining room for dinner.

Olivia stepped into her black heels. Wes watched as she smoothed her dress, and silently went to the bathroom. She picked up her brass-handled brush and ran it through her hair until the snags were gone.

“I’m ready.”





“I HAVE A PLAN,” Adelaide said after the first course of split pea soup.

Wes looked up from his bowl, having only taken a few sips of the green broth. He didn’t have an appetite.

How could he eat when his sister was forced to live with that monster?

Memories of what he had done to Avalon’s older brothers haunted him.

But I’m the real monster. I am the reason Avalon took her away.

A sharp pain shot into his stomach. He winced. It wasn’t the curse.

It was guilt.

Olivia sat up in her seat, her eyes full of determined hope. It was clear that she was broken by what Avalon had done to her, but not so much so that she had given up on Evie.

Wes watched as she clasped her napkin, squeezing it in her fist. “What do you have in mind?”

“We all leave Woodland Creek behind. Sell Scarlett Hall. Sell everything.”

“What?” Wes raised a brow, wondering if his mother had lost her mind. There was no way they could give up their ancestral home.