Amaranth
Page 19
I leaned over the counter as she spoke, examined the clusters of pictures aligned over the sink and stove’s backsplashes.
My stomach sank when I looked closer at the man in one picture. Joel’s familiar, wise face stared back at me, Arianna standing next to him, immense love and adoration in her eyes. “Where was this one taken?”
“Oh, that one.” She reached over to touch the picture. “That was in London, many years ago. Joel, the love of my life. Gavin’s told you about him, no doubt.”
“He has, yeah…” I choked and couldn’t finish; dread crept through me like my old invasive enemies. What would she do when she found out he was gone? That he died to save me? I turned my head, unable to look at the picture any longer.
“Those were good times,” she shook her head as if bumping Joel’s memory from her, moved away from the picture and back to the cutting board, “but Samira never wanted us together in the first place. She made us cut off our engagement long ago.”
“You were engaged?” My face dropped at her words. It was bad enough I took her lover from her. Now I was a fiancé killer.
“Yeah,” she dumped the diced vegetables in a bowl, stared at them for a moment, let out a sigh. “She never approved of our relationship. By the time my father forced me to leave Amaranth and placed me with Gavin and his family, I never saw Joel again.”
The oven’s timer went off, and I turned to help her pull out the chicken. “What do you mean, placed with Gavin’s family?” I set the perfect golden chicken on top of an oven mitt, inhaled the succulent scent.
“My father wasn’t a very dependable man. He wanted me to have a good family, wanted me to be as far from Samira as possible. So he made an arrangement with a good friend of his. That friend was Gavin’s father. And Gavin’s family became my own. We’re not brother and sister by blood, didn’t he tell you?”
“No, I had no idea…” The fact that she looked nothing like Gavin suddenly made sense, and my interest burned to know more. “You’d never know it. I mean, you and Gavin seem so close.”
“Oh we are.” She smiled, started carving the chicken, placed the meat on an antique platter. “I consider him my brother in every way that counts, although Samira’s still my mother by blood, unfortunately. She’s a wretched woman. But I’m sure you know that by now.”
COMING SOON...
The Gates
Book Two of The Resistance Trilogy
Visit www.RachaelWade.com
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
AMARANTH
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
EPILOGUE
COMING SOON...