When I Flash-Married a Billionaire, My Ex Went on a Hunger Strike novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: The Cabin
The cabin stood on a lake in the western part of the state, at the end of a dirt road, with a stone chimney and no neighbors.
Lachlan had owned it for three years and used it for six nights.
He carried my bag up the porch steps and held the door, and I walked in and stopped.
It was one room, with a high wood ceiling, a kitchen along one wall and a big bed under the window.
A stone fireplace in the middle with a thick sheepskin rug in front of it.
"This is what the money bought you?" I said.
"This is the only thing I ever wanted that cost money."
"It's perfect."
"It's cold. Give me five minutes."
He knelt at the fireplace and built a fire with the economy of a man who did everything with his hands.
I stood in the doorway and watched the flames catch.
It was the first Saturday in December.
The lake outside the window was grey and still.
I took off my coat and hung it by the door.
"I want to tell you about the cellar," I said.
He looked up.
"You don't have to."
"I want to. All of it. Once. And then I never need to say it again."
He sat back on his heels.
I walked across the room and sat down on the rug beside him, with my knees drawn up and the fire hot on my face.
"There were two of them," I said. "The big one never spoke. The thin one talked all day. He said I'd be home in a week. He said it was only money."
"Okay."
"On the fifth day he said my father wasn't picking up. On the ninth day he played me the call. I think he wanted me to hear it. I think he wanted to see if I'd cry." I took a breath. "I didn't. I decided I'd never let him see anything. And then I broke the window with the heel of my shoe on day nineteen and climbed through a coal chute, and I thought, I'll never be warm again."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of When I Flash-Married a Billionaire, My Ex Went on a Hunger Strike are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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