Read Online Joseph Fallen (The Estate Series) by M.S. Willis - Free Book Online Page B

Joseph in waves, causing her skin to prickle and her chest to
expand from her quickened breath.   A
silence, pregnant with regret, shame, anger and loss, hung over them like a
thick winter blanket.   A man and his
wife, two people who’d lived and breathed for each other only a few years
before, now stood on a precipice carved out of lies and doubt, utter sadness and
sudden understanding of what had become of an envied couple, of two lovers who
at one time had needed each other to survive.
    When Joseph’s eyes closed, when his breathing deepened and
Arianna looked up into the pained face of her husband, her heart melted.   Pain, unforgiving and true, touched his
features, caused his skin to grow pale over the sharp peaks of his
cheekbones.   He was tired, of that
he’d not lied – and he was fighting against something she could not
recognize.   However, even with
exhaustion weighing down his strong shoulders, she could tell that whatever he
fought against carried a deep-seated resentment towards her.   With tears falling from her wide-opened
eyes, she reached up, her love making it impossible for her to keep from
providing comfort to the man who at that moment had torn her heart, her entire
world, apart.   He was lost to
something she didn’t know, a poison that had somehow weaved itself around him,
forming a cage of conspiracy and deceit, enslaving him to a lifestyle that
would drive a brilliant mind mad.
    The skin of her palm slid against the rough skin of his
cheek, and almost instantly on that contact, his grey eyes shot open, veins of
black formed from emotions so disturbing, she could barely stand to keep her
eyes open long before letting her lids fall tight to her face.
    Her lips falling apart, she pled, “Please, Joseph.   Let me leave.”
    Consumed in silence that threatened to suffocate her,
silence that began to push and pull at every nerve within her body, she waited
to find out what Joseph would do next.   But then, just barely, she heard the click of metal against metal, the
soft push of a door moving against air.
    The low baritone of an unsure voice sounded next.   “I apologize for interrupting, but I’ve
been informed that Emory has returned.   Joseph, you may want to speak with him immediately.   The information he’s discovered…”   Connor paused, seemingly unsure how much
he could reveal with Arianna in the room.   “…it’s information you’ll want to know right away.”
    Allowing her eyes to open again, she was stunned to discover
that Joseph’s eyes were still locked tight on her face.   A mask of indifference now covered his
features, the angry black veins in his eyes muted by Connor’s interruption; but
he never looked away from her when he answered his guard.
    “I’ll be there in a moment.   Leave us.”
    Drowning in a torrential flood of pain and doubt, Arianna
stood waiting for what Joseph would say or do next.   Realization crept across her thoughts,
the loss of hope and the knowledge that everything she thought she’d known,
everything she thought they’d been, had been a lie.   As if she’d been a dreamer finally
waking from a long sleep, she allowed her mind to quickly travel through the
past, to recognize the signs she’d ignored over the years they’d been
married.   Blaming herself,   she thought about how she’d accepted
that it had been his long hours that had been the blame for his restlessness,
but the truth now slapping her in the face, she realized her husband had fallen
and she’d been too ignorant to pull him back.
    He stood motionless around her, the heat of his body, his
scent, bathing her as she waited – the broken promise and the reminder of
who her husband had been was dangled before her in that moment, a dream she
would never capture again.   He
looked like Joseph, smelled like him, carried the same unspoken power and
assurance – but he was no longer the man she’d believe him to be.
    His jaw ticked, and when his sculpted lips