Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
“Esther came over with her mom. I didn’t let them in, but she said… she said he got her pregnant, and she had to get an abortion. He likes them to be virgins,” I stopped as bile burned my throat.
“Where are you?” he bit out.
“At Mom’s,” I replied.
“Stay there. I’m coming to get you.”
“No, she needs me,” I told him, although I wanted to see him. I wanted him to make all the bad in my head go away.
“She just called and asked me to come get you before I called you. She’s ready for me to move the money into an account with her name only, and she’s got the best divorce attorney in Atlanta on his way to the house to meet with her.”
I stared at her closed door. “She does?”
“Yes. She asked me to get her someone that could get it done.”
I let out a long breath. What would he not do for me? I was sure there was nothing.
The sound of a door closed, and an engine started up. “I’m on my way,” he told me.
“Okay.”
Ending the call, I turned slowly in the living room that held so many family memories. All tainted now by the secrets that had been hidden right under our noses. It felt as if someone had used an eraser and taken those years away from me. Gone. No longer real. No longer mine.
I walked to the bedroom and took the folded note from my father. This was more lying, something that meant nothing. Taking it to the kitchen sink, I found the lighter my mom used for candles. I lit the edge of the paper, watching it burn until I had to drop it.
The smoke detector went off, so I turned the water on to put out the embers. Then, I got a towel to fan the smoke away so the alarm would shut up.
Mom was standing there watching me when I turned around.
“At least let me get what I want out before you burn the place down,” she said.
I dropped my eyes to the sink. “I was burning the letter,” I admitted.
“If only it were that easy.” Her response held a darkness. One I understood.
Being back at the stables with Thatcher helped me feel more at ease as if my life had some stability. However, when King walked into the lounge, I wasn’t sure we needed to be here. King looked like he was about to say something he was debating. I wanted to raise my hand and request that he not. At least let us get through today before any more shit happened.
King glanced at me before turning his attention back to Thatcher. “This may not be the best time to bring it up, but we need to make a decision on Zephyr’s jockey for Kentucky,” he began. “Bloodline wouldn’t have come in second at the Breeders without Capri.”
Thatcher tensed beside me, his hand tightening his grip on my shirt that he had fisted at my back the moment King walked into the room. Had they been discussing this without me? I’d tried not to think about it over the holidays, but the closer to Spring, I had been battling bringing it up.
With everything else that had been happening, it had slipped further back into my importance meter.
“Not now,” Thatcher replied.
King gave me an apologetic look then nodded. Normally I would be on board to push this, but I was doing good to work through everything I thought I knew about my life changing overnight.
“You need help with anything?” King asked Thatcher, then his eyes seemed to be asking more than that as they looked at each other. As if he knew something already. Since my dad had been doing shady deals for the family nine years ago maybe he did know. They might all know.
“Not sure yet,” Thatcher told him.
King nodded once, then gave me a smile that was more sympathetic than anything before. He left the room. Thatcher pulled me closer to him, inhaled, and pressed his nose to my head. “He doesn’t have the details,” he said in a low voice. “Just enough.”
I nodded, relieved. I didn’t want the others to know the sex addiction my dad had or that he’d gotten my former best friend pregnant and left her to figure it out on her own. The more I thought about what he had done the more I wondered how many others there had been.
“Maeme’s cooking tonight. Want to go eat with the others, or would you rather just go home?” he asked me.
We hadn’t been home since he picked me up from my parents’ house earlier. He had brought me here, and I watched Rog take out Sword and Nemesis. Their times weren’t bad, but I knew they could do better. He wasn’t reading their tells and I needed to work with him on that. It had distracted me. Given me something else to think about.