Bound by the Past, Locked by the Heart novel Chapter 5

Five years ago, right after her father was arrested and before his case was even sentenced, her mother had filed for a hasty divorce and immediately married this man.

Willa had still been in college at the time. Without a single word of notice, her mother had packed up and moved into Warren Whitman's house.

By the time she returned, her childhood home was nothing more than an empty shell.

She later learned that her mother had been sleeping with Warren long before her father's arrest.

Her mother had siphoned off nearly all their savings, leaving behind only the old house registered in her father's name.

Just as Willa was about to block the number, her phone buzzed again.

[Warren says he knows some people regarding your dad's case. He can help pull some strings to reduce his sentence.]

Willa stared at the message, a bitter laugh escaping her as her eyes burned.

Help?

If they really wanted to help, where were they five years ago when her world collapsed?

Back then, an unfinished building her father was managing had collapsed, killing three workers, and he was thrown in prison.

But she refused to believe that her honest, hardworking father would ever accept bribes.

She didn't reply, but in the end, she couldn't bring herself to block the number either.

Willa tossed the phone onto the nightstand, grabbed her pajamas, and retreated into the bathroom.

When she stepped out, towel-drying her hair, she spotted a figure lounging against the wall and nearly dropped the towel in shock.

Randal was leaning casually against the wardrobe, hands in his pockets. His dark, suffocating gaze was glued to her, his lips curled in a mocking sneer. "Done showering already? You certainly couldn't wait, could you?"

She ignored the insult. "Why are you here? Where's Zack?"

A sharp sting flared up. Willa instinctively tried to flinch away, but his other hand clamped onto her chin, forcing her face up to meet the raging storm in his eyes.

"Willa," he whispered her name, his voice dropping dangerously low. "Look me in the eyes and tell me—was I not good to you those three years?"

He had been. He had been so incredibly good to her that she truly believed Cinderella had finally found her prince.

She just forgot that once the clock struck midnight, the sweet illusion would shatter, leaving her with a painfully humiliating exit.

Willa stubbornly turned her head away, avoiding his gaze. "There's no point in dragging up the past."

"No point?" Randal tightened his grip, forcing her to look back at him with a force that made her wince. "You're really something, Willa. Do you even have a heart?!"

"What exactly do you want me to say?" Willa choked out, her voice raw and breaking. "That I regret it? That I still miss you? Or should I fall to my knees and thank Mr. Yates for lowering his noble self to play the doomed, devoted lover with me for three years?"

"Tell me, Randal, what kind of heart should I have for someone who messed with me when he was already engaged? And since you were the one hiding your identity all along, what gives you the right to stand on some moral high ground and judge me now?"