Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“I don’t know,” I said. “It really wasn’t…”
I shook my head, unable to articulate what I wanted to say.
Silas dropped down to his knees in front of me, and it felt like every single person in the room disappeared.
“I swear to you,” he said. “That you didn’t mean to do what you did. You know it, and I know it. Hell, everyone in this room knows it. I spoke with the chief of police about this, went over what had happened, and he agrees.” He leaned forward. “The lead detective that was on your case is dead. The judge retired. Your lawyer’s dead. Now does that seem like a coincidence to you?”
I blinked. “My lawyer died of a heart attack.”
He shook his head. “Your lawyer died of a suspected heart attack. There was no autopsy performed on him, so they don’t know what exactly he died from, and there are medications out there that can stop the heart and make it look like a heart attack.”
“So then…what? Do I have someone out there that’s going to try to kill me now that I know? What about the rest of the people in this room?” I asked worriedly.
“As of right now, there should be a man serving a warrant,” Silas said. “Rydel Jones should be in police custody.”
My eyes were wide.
How had he accomplished all of this without me knowing?
He grinned.
“Ex CIA, darlin,’” he whispered so only I could hear. “Just trust me. He’s going down.”
Then I started to cry.
“Can I go get my nursing license? Can I finish that? I was almost halfway through!” I whispered fiercely.
To think of all those years wasted.
Where would I be right now had I been able to finish?
I only had another year.
He nodded. “You should be able to. I’m not really sure how any of that will work out, or even when it’ll all be finished by. But yeah, you are being pardoned, your record will be expunged, you’ll no longer have any criminal record at all.”
I looked at him and knew, had this awful thing not happened to me, I wouldn’t be sitting where I was right then.
I wouldn’t have this wonderful man in front of me.
He may seem harsh and hard to everyone else, since I’d heard no less than twenty people say that, but he was a big ol’ marshmallow with me.
He had an ooey gooey center that only I could see.
“I lo…thank you, Silas,” I said. “Thank you so much.”
His eyes flared at my near slip of tongue, and I thought I detected a note of panic in his eyes before they cleared.
“You’re welcome, Sawyer. I’d do anything for you,” he said roughly. “Anything you need, I’ll give to you if it’s within my power.”
***
Hours later found Ruthie and I at a diner in town.
And none other than Isaac and his new wife two booths in front of us.
“That’s my ex that I thought stood by me through it all,” I whispered, leaning forward so only she could hear. “But I found out the day I got out that he was about to get married and had a kid on the way. He has been openly cheating on me since I went in.”
“Seems like you bounced back well,” Ruthie’s eyes sparkled. “And with an older man at that! Jesus, is he sexy as hell or what?!”
I smiled.
Silas was sexy as hell.
“I know, God, how did I get so lucky?” I whispered conspiratorially. “And I never even saw him coming! It was just one second he was there, and I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I saw him everywhere I turned!”
What he didn’t know, is that he half saved me.
I was well on the way to being depressed.
And Silas had been there to rip me off that path with such ease that it was scary.
“So what’s his story?”
“You’re never going to believe this, but I think he had some sort of relationship with my mother,” I whispered. “And I haven’t had a chance to talk to either one of them about it. Although I guess I can now. Dallas won’t keep his trap shut about the two of us. My mother and father will know by morning, I’m sure.”
Ruthie’s mouth dropped open.
“So you think they were like…what…fucking? He didn’t seem the type to cheat.”
I refrained from saying that he was the type.
That he’d done it in the past.
Then she’d think I was crazy for still being with him.
Ruthie hated cheaters.
Her now dead husband had been a cheater.
And she had an irrational annoyance with them.
She contributed her husband’s desire to beat her to the fact that she’d confronted him about his cheating.
So I decided to steer clear of that topic.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I have to talk to him about it. There hasn’t been time to ask. And I don’t want to ask my mother, because that’s just awkward. What if they did share a relationship of some sort?”
She shrugged.
But before she could say anything else, a man’s throat clearing had me looking up.
At Isaac.
Oh, yay!
“Yeah?” I asked with a raised brow.
“I thought I’d check to see how you were doing,” he said, eyes smiling at me.
I blinked.
“How I’m doing?” I asked, confirming what he’d said.
He nodded.
“Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet you. I didn’t have much choice,” he said, pointing with his thumb at the woman behind him.
Ruthie snorted into her drink before taking another sip, trying gallantly not to get into the middle of what she knew was about to become a huge fight.
“Well, Isaac, I guess I’m doing alright considering,” I said smoothly.
He blinked.
“Considering what?” He asked.
It was my turn to blink.
“Are you really that stupid, Isaac?” I asked slowly.
He frowned. “What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything to you.”
“Let me start from the beginning then,” I said, holding up one finger. “You forced me to go to a party eight years ago that I didn’t want to go to, and, as a result, I killed four people.” I held up a second finger. “Then you lead me on for eight years. Telling me you’ll be waiting for me when I get out. Yet, the day I get out, you don’t show up, and my best friend tells me that you’re getting married – to the woman you knocked up.”