Chapter 4
Turning to head back, her shadow crossed into Ethan’s peripheral vision, and he barked, “Stop!”
Striding over, Ethan took in the sight of Harper’s body, thin as a stick. Ava had given her a nightdress–cream–colored, falling to mid–calf.
When she had arrived during the day, wrapped in a sweater and jeans, the bulk had hidden much.
Now, with her ankles bare, her calves and forearms looked like skin over bone, barely human.
“What are you doing here?” Ethan’s eyes swept over her with open disdain. “Planning to hurt someone again?”
“I was just taking a walk,” she said.
Ethan took a step closer and suddenly grabbed Harper by the collar. His voice dropped to a deathly growl. “Do you think you are still a young lady of the Walker family, free to wander wherever you like?”
Three years ago, it had been revealed that she was not a child of the Walker family at all. She had been switched at birth.
Her real father was a gambler, and her mother had died young. She had enjoyed a wealthy life she was never meant to have, squandering a blessing born of a mistake.
The real daughter of the Walkers had died of a high fever at the age of
six.
With her chin trembling and lips pale, Harper murmured, “I will not do it again. I will not dare next time.”
Chapter 4
“Do not think bringing you back was so you could have a good life. That foolish dream of yours–has it not died after all these years?”
Finished with his warning, Ethan shoved Harper against the wall and questioned her.
She did not grab his arm and bite him like she had as a child, nor cry loudly to bring Ava running.
She simply kept her head down in silence, her knees scraped and bleeding, neither crying nor making a scene.
Her body was small and thin, her shadow on the floor just a small lump.
It seemed her neck had been bent from the moment she came back–never
straightened once.
Ethan reached out, intending to force Harper’s chin up.
But when his hand cast a shadow over her, she seemed to sense something–reacting on pure instinct and terror. She shrank in on herself, covering her head with both arms, pressing against the wall, trembling like a leaf.
Startled, Ethan pulled back his hand and swore, “Hitting you would only dirty my hands. Get out of my sight!”
It was as if she had been pardoned.
Harper bolted away, in a way almost ridiculous–but Ethan found he could not laugh.
The call with Mason had not been disconnected.
Ethan sat back down and drained half his glass in one go. “Can you believe the state she is in? I just raised my hand to scare her, and she went to pieces. Not fun at all.”
11
Chapter 4
“Gone soft?” Mason’s voice came through the receiver, faintly hoarse.
“No. I just think it is not any fun like this.” If there was anyone who knew Harper’s character best, it was Mason.
“A ploy for sympathy. After all these years, she is still so clumsy–no improvement at all,” said Ethan..
Mason lowered his lashes, picking up where they had left off before the interruption. “You said the family arranged somewhere else for her to go?”
“Yeah. She will meet them in a few days,” Ethan said. “By the way, it is an old acquaintance. You know him, too.”
Ethan could not help the gloating note in his voice. “Once she marries over there, she will be living a life worse than death. No children, no hope–just a long, long life.”
The morning roads were slick, and the tires sent up a thin spray as they rolled across the wet pavement.
It had rained in Moridise for several days straight, but the fog was beginning to lift this morning. Ava had arranged for Harper to ride with Ethan. She twisted her fingers together, her voice barely above a whisper. “Where are we going?”
Ethan kept one hand on the wheel. “Do not ask so much. It is something Mom arranged for you. Just make sure you behave yourself.”
Fair enough.
Chapter 5
