All Chapters of Protecting The Heiress : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

LIA The chilling tremor still ripples through me six hours after the incident. Everything happening around me seems like a page ripped out o,f a horror movie. Seeing a decaying dead body wasn't on my list of anticipated things when this year started. Frankly, a lot of things that have happened three months into this year. To be more specific two weeks up to this moment aren't what I envisioned my year would be. I started this year with places I wanted to go and things I wanted to do with Karl. But right now, I'm just glad if I make it through the next morning. I hold the old lady, Sarah as she cries over her daughter. It is an unpleasant, gruesome scene and my heart breaks into tiny pieces for her. Seeing a dead body is one thing. Having to see a mother grieve over her child is a torment on its own. I can never console her no matter how much I try. My quick slip in and out turns into hours. As the crowd starts to form in from of the apartment, I can't bring myself to leave

LIA Everything happens faster than I can keep up. With each passing day, it feels like I'm drowning. I just lost my father and it doesn't help that I have cameras shoved to my face every angle I turn and I'm not left alone to mourn him properly. I have nodded my head more times than I can count, and now, a permanent ache tortures my neck. I've had my back patted more than I like, and I've been looked at with sad, pitiful eyes that make everything much worse. I'm not alone throughout the process. My stepbrother, Gareth and my father's good friend, Uncle Stanley are here too. But for the most part, I feel so lonely and burdened. Grumpy left the moment we arrived at the hospital that day, without a goodbye. I knew his job here was done since he brought me safely to New York, but a part of me wished he had at least said goodbye to me. Now, I'm in the hall where my father's memorial will take place. To me, everything seems rushed, but as Gareth has said, it is to get the medi

LIA Even as I fought for my life inside the bathroom, my thoughts were about him, barging in like a knight in shining armor and saving me from my self-destruction, just like he did in Leavenworth. Even when I felt a hand on my lower back, I wished it was him because that would be the only way I would survive. Being attached to someone who probably considers me a stranger is alarming, but my mind works in a way that even I don't understand. And it's been fixated on Grumpy ever since he left. All he did was do his job by saving my life. But I can't stop thinking about him, wanting him with me because the last time I knew comfort was with him, though my life was in danger then. So anytime I need a moment of solace, my mind always goes to the short moment I spent with him. My hands stay wrapped around Grumpy's waist throughout the drive. It was for the best that I left the memorial. I couldn't go back in and face Gareth after what happened between us. What Gareth was mad about wasn't

LIA I have been in a state of disarray, unable to think about anything else ever since I got that message. A never-ending storm of questions floods my thoughts with no answers in sight. The only concrete detail I have is the Rolex wristwatch the man wore—a rare, limited edition I recognize. This information is useless if I can't identify the man in question. I'm going crazy out of my mind and confused. My day drifts by in its usual monotony. I have my much-needed coffee, replay the video over and over again until my head hurts, and take a shower that does little to clear the fog from my mind. Then I head downstairs and eat the most distasteful breakfast ever—cereal—while I mull over the video again. Just as I'm about to head out to meet the anonymous sender, I get a call from Uncle Stanley. Twenty minutes later, I find myself in the worn booth of a bakery, sitting across from Uncle Stanley. The memory of coming here with Uncle Stanley as a child sits at the back of my mind, vivi

LIA Several minutes after the shootout, I still tremble uncontrollably against Nikolai's back. Though he is riding the bike at a steady speed, the wind lashes on my skin like a whip, forcing its way into my lungs and choking me. Each time I try to close my eyes against the stinging air, the vision of bullets tearing into Liam's body haunts me, so I keep them open, letting tears trace a path down my cheeks. I have never been this close to losing my life before. Even when Grumpy pushed me off a two-story building in Leavenworth, I didn't feel the same terror as in the cafe. It felt as though it was my final moment as if I was taking my last breath. I don't know how I managed to crawl through the shards of glass on the floor and out of the cafe. I don't even know how I survived the shootout, but one thing I'm certain of is that if it wasn't for Grumpy, I wouldn't be alive now. If Grumpy hadn't been at the right place and time, I'd be dead. The thought sends a cold dread through me.