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''That's one hell of a fucking checkmate...''
Safety warnings:
- H 39 / h 25
- No cheating
- No OW/OM drama
- Mention of child abuse
- Mention of child s*xual abuse
- Mention of child p*rn
- Violence
- D*ath
- Cliffhanger
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
We pick up back with the couple and Meredith is still being held captive but unbeknownst she is being held from the world because Michael is trying to keep her safe from her father as it was him who put the hit out on her life and he truly believes he will never stop until she is dead so the best thing to do is to keep her hidden and let the world believe she has perished.
We also get a lot of backstory to Michael's life before we meet him in book 1. The reasons why he is currently killing these men on a personal list him, and his brother have created and the story is really sick.
One day at the age of 12 Michael and his twin brother Trevor were dropped off by their addict mother to their Uncle Avery house and never came back for them. Their uncle, who is known in the community and business world as someone renowned was sick and twisted. He would r*pe the boys and have his friends come over and do the same, sexually/physically abuse them for years. It's heartbreaking and it's so fucked up that these men were powerful and made sure they never saw the light of day. We also find out HOW they were kept in the basement. Every few hours one would roam the house freely while the other was chained and then switched places.
We also see the way that Michael got to take his first revenge against his abuser, he poisoned him and left him to die, this prompts Trevor and him to bury their uncle in a massive grave and go out into the world and attempt to live a normal life as the world believed they had graduated school and were thriving in the world when in reality it was all a lie. His uncle and his sick friends just had so much power that can make all these lies up to the world so nobody ever knew they were missing or being abused.
They made a pact to come back and kill everyone on the list if they cannot truly move on from the horrors which causes them to do so.
This whole backstory was a hard pill to swallow, and it was heartbreaking to read about everything they had gone through and how even two decades later they suffered from it.
But back to the reality that is Meredith and Michael, he finally decides to let her go and give her a new life away from everyone and everything as he knows deep down, she can never truly accept him if she knew the truth though I have a feeling she will one day when he admits it all.
You can see throughout this book how devoted he is to his wife and even goes as far as to basically let another woman know that he would never cheat (she was a police officer who was working around his wife’s kidnapping/disappearance).
In this book you know that her father was the one who wants her dead, but we still do not know why but seeing him ''sad'' over her missing was such bullshit when you can see the crocodile tears and how he is using this event to move up his political agenda.
Thankfully, Michael finally tells Meredith the truth about her father and she now is aware of the truth and he even has video proof of his request for her death.