Curves Envy 3 - Claimed By An Alpha: BBW Billionaire Romance by Scarlett Avery

folded hands. “I’ve asked myself this question at least a million times and I have yet to find a logical answer for losing my parents at such a young age.”
    “My God, what happened to them?”
    “It was a horrific accident, Max.” I’ve been haunted for years by the mysterious events surrounding my mom and dad’s final hours. I’ve even somewhat made peace with it all after my grandmother died, but it’s still an agonizing exercise to voice so much pain. “I lived an idyllic life as an only child of two adoring parents. It’s funny because until my parents’ death, I had dealt with very few devastating moments in my life. I guess the price to pay for such a privileged childhood was to experience the worst kind of suffering possible—losing both parents at the same time.”
    I shut my eyes to muster up the strength to continue, but I don’t think I have the courage to tell Max what happened to the two people I loved the most on this planet . Too many emotions. Too many bad memories. Too much sorrow.
    “No, Candy, look at me. Don’t shut me out.” When I finally look up at him, he strokes his warm hands up and down my arm. “You’re mine now and I’m here for you. Please talk to me.”
    Okay, you can do this. Under his anxious gaze, my words spill out of me, ugly and raw. I confess things I haven’t been able to share with Trish or my aunt Caroline.
    “That summer, my parents put me in the back of their Volvo for a road trip to Connecticut, where I was to spend the summer with my paternal grandparents who owned a home there. Once they dropped me off, my mom and dad planned on driving cross-country to Colorado. The drive from New York was absolutely breathtaking and the short trip locked in the car gave the three of us a chance to bond as a family, since we were all so busy with our hectic lives. I was always swamped with assignments and papers for school. We only spent a couple days with my grandparents before they hit the road again. On an early Sunday morning, they waved goodbye to my grandparents and me before heading west.”
    I shrug, barely moving my shoulders an inch to brush away the bad memories.
    “I never saw them again. I vividly remember the life-changing knock from the police on my grandparents’door at one o’clock in the morning—it had taken them a while to connect the dots and to contact family members. Had it not been for the fact my dad paid with his credit card at Sweet Sally’s, we might never have found out what had happened. Since Dad had parked right across from the eatery, the cops were able to piece the puzzle together when they interviewed witnesses.” I shudder.
    “I can’t believe you had to live through this. Did the police investigate the accident?”
    “The news claimed it was a freak accident—a downtown crane parked in front of a new real-estate development malfunctioned and an enormous steel cylinder dropped like a brick right on top of my parents’ parked car. My mom and dad had gone to the same place for Sunday-morning brunch for as long as I can remember—everyone knew them at Sweet Sally’s. They had stopped for a quick bite at their favorite spot before their long drive. They never expected it to be their last meal. There was nothing left of my parents. The crane destroyed their car and crushed them to dust. The puzzling thing to this day is how the crane dropped on top of their car like a missile, barely denting the cars parked in front or behind them—it seemed too precise.”
    “Jesus Christ.” Max has shifted from his seat to sit at my feet. He’s hugging my legs and dropping soft kisses against my skin. I can read the devastation in his eyes as I recount my catastrophic tale.
    “My grandparents nearly died when the police broke the news to us, but they found the strength to fight back after the development company offered me a pittance to keep me quiet—they didn’t want us talking to the press. My feisty grandmother sued the hell out of