Read Rise (Roam Series, Book Three) for Free Online Page B

him go to the door and accept a small package.
    He carried the box to the table. “No return address. But I recognize this handwriting.” Puzzled, he pulled at the tape, tearing the package open.
    Inside the cardboard was a jewelry box, small with grey velvet and a hinged top. She watched him open the lid, staring at the diamond engagement ring inside.
    “ Roam ,” he dropped the ring and reached into the cardboard box, pulling at a folded piece of white paper.
    He held his breath as his eyes touched her beautiful handwriting, evenly spaced with tall, thin letters.
     
    My baby Eva,
    I hope that you know me. In the small time that I knew you, I have loved you more than anything in all of the worlds, and I will always love you this much.
    Your father gave me this ring; please keep it, and I pray that you find the great love that I had with your daddy someday.
    Be strong, my beautiful girl.
    Love,
    Mommy
     
    “Oh my God,” Morgan read next to him, reaching for the box. “West, there’s another note inside.”
    He reached for the second paper, and she watched his breathing accelerate as his entire body tensed.
     
    Roam will give birth to my child in early September.
    I finally found something to do with her other than kill her ...
    A nd she is so accommodating.
    -T roy
     
    Morgan jumped backwards, flattening against the wall as West grabbed the table by the edges, hurling it over with a strangled cry. She winced as he reared his elbow back, sending his fist into the wall under the stairs.
    “West, stop ,” she reached for him, but he was already crossing the room to the back door, slamming it with a force that shook the house. She waited for Eva’s cries through the monitor, and when the house remained silent, she followed him to the backyard.
    She fou nd him standing barefooted in the snow.
    “Two fucking years,” he growled as she got closer. “The things… I imagined …,” he stopped speaking, his shoulders shaking.
    “Thank God she’s alive,” she whispered, the cold December air adding to Roam’s bittersweet message. “And she is having a baby… maybe she’s okay.”
    He took a step forward, out of her reach. “She must have been so terrified. And I did nothing … I couldn’t save her.”
    “Maybe she saved herself,” Morgan kicked at a fallen branch. “She’s alive, and she is having his child, and she said good-bye to Eva in that letter. It sounds like she did what she had to do to survive.”
    He turned in the afternoon sunlight, his eyes glassy. “I’m sorry for behaving like that, inside. I’ll clean up. You don’t have to stay.”
    She walked to him, raising her eyes to his. “Hey. We’re family. I’m here for you.”
    “I just want to be alone.” His words, colder than the air, chilled her.
    She shivered, glancing back at the house. “Are you going to be okay? With Eva?”
    “Of course I will,” he snapped, and then softened. “I’ll call you later.”
    “Okay.”
    After she pulled away, West straightened the table and hung one of Eva’s most recent paintings over the hole in the drywall. When he checked on her, she was sleeping soundly in her white, wooden toddler bed, cuddling the yellow bunny that Morgan had given her for her first birthday.
    A child. He imagined Troy’s hands, his mouth, his body on hers, and fought to control the powerless rage brewing inside once more. I should never have left without her… I should have left Laurel there.
    Whenever he thought of Laurel, guilt gnawed at his stomach. Again and again he regretted going back for her, even though he knew it was the right thing to do. Ultimately, he felt like he traded Laurel’s life for Roam’s, and he would never forgive himself.
    Never .
    Her letter talked about the love that they had, in past tense, as though she’d already accepted that there was no way back.
    She’d have turned nineteen years old in July.
    “Daddy!”
    He jumped to his feet, skipping stairs to get to Eva as she cried. He