Read Online Broken by Teona Bell - Free Book Online Page A

of hurt overwhelming her. She wanted to escape and never come back. “It’s obvious I’m a substitute.”
    He blinked at her. “Why would you think that?”
    She stabbed a finger toward the picture. “I just said. I look like her sister.”
    His normally easygoing expression turned dark and angry. She couldn’t remember him ever look anything but accepting and wondered for the first time if he too hid his feelings. Doing so wasn’t unheard of for a man though.
    “So you think I went searching for a woman who looked like my dead wife?”
    Ciera didn’t respond.
    “I was so obsessed I had to get a copy?” he growled. “Hell, while I was at it, maybe I should have also tried to change your personality to match hers and encouraged you to dress the way she did?”
    “You’re being ridiculous.” Her voice came out a whisper because he shamed her.
    He grabbed her hand and practically dragged her over to his closet. After wrenching the door open, he brought a box down from the shelf and carried it to the bed. Ciera stayed where she was near the closet, but he turned angry eyes on her.
    “Come and see!”
    She thought about telling him where to stuff it but drifted over there anyway. An album of pictures lay before him, pictures of his late wife and pictures of Melly when she was born. Nathan stood over the two of them looking like the proud papa. What struck Ciera was that the picture of Nathan’s wife did look like Ciera around Melly’s birth and in the candid shot of her in bed. However, when they were out and about or sitting for professional photos, Nathan’s wife surprisingly wore weaves. She looked like a different person in hair that was sometimes long, sometimes short, often straight. Expertly applied makeup and fashionable clothes seemed to be her norm. Sure, the woman and Ciera would look alike with nothing added, but that wasn’t the kind of person Melly’s mom had been.
    “I didn’t choose you,” Nathan said. “Melly did.”
    Ciera flinched.
    “But I’m glad she did,” he hurried to add. “You are so beautiful and so unique, but you don’t see that. You were ready to walk away from what we started just because of Kathy’s spite.”
    “I…” She had no excuse. “You don’t understand.”
    He turned from the pictures and pulled her close. She resisted curling into his arms as he seemed to want, and he sighed. “I don’t understand, Ciera. You don’t open up to me, but I keep hoping you will.”
    “Doesn’t it hurt you to look at those pictures?” she demanded. “The fact that you have them—”
    “The fact that I have them means I loved her once, and I keep them for Melly. Yes, it hurts. Lately, a lot less than it used to.”
    She looked up at him and then away. He caressed her cheek. Ciera started to open her mouth and then noticed Melly watching them with curiosity. She spun away and sat on the bed. Nathan picked his daughter up to carry her from the room. Ciera heard him telling her something about TV and assumed the pauses were Melly responding in sign language.
    After some time, he came back and pushed the bedroom door until it was open just a crack. He took her hand and led her to the bed. Ciera let him press on her shoulders until she sat. Panic inside told her to escape now, but resolve kept her seated and quiet. Nathan put the album and the picture from his dresser drawer on the closet’s top shelf. He walked over to sit beside her, and touched her hand. A shudder passed through her.
    “Talk to me, Ciera,” he whispered. The words were more a plea this time than a demand.
    She clenched her hands together in her lap. He raised her chin and kissed her lips. When he drew away, she started to turn her head.
    “No!”
    She jumped and blinked at him.
    He stared into her eyes, and for the first time she saw deep pain that robbed her of speech. “It feels like if you turn away from me now, you’re going to leave here today and not come back.”
    Her fingers cramped. She was