Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 100226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
“All you’re doing is hurting my wife, and I’ve had enough of that bullshit. So, let’s have this out. Right now.”
“You piece of shit.”
“Dad!” Millie cries. I can hear the tears in her eyes, and when I glance over, I see that Chase is holding her, and I’m relieved to see that she’s being taken care of. There’s a crowd gathered, but aside from Jake and Katie, the kids aren’t around, and that makes me feel better.
“WHY DID YOU MARRY MY DAUGHTER?” John roars, getting within three feet of my face. “Of all the people in this town, why my baby?”
“Because I had no fucking choice!”
I rub my hand over my face and pace away from him. It’s time to just come clean. To spell it all out. Because nothing will be resolved here if I don’t, and Millie needs her dad.
“There are two reasons for that.” I glance her way, and she nods, still crying against Chase. “The first one being that I fell in love with her eight years ago. It was sweet and amazing, and I would have married her then.”
I push my hands through my hair, pacing.
“But my fucking father found out and threatened to kill her and my sister if I kept seeing her.”
John growls. Joy cries out. There’s more sniffling happening behind me.
With my eyes on John’s, I continue. “He would have done it. You know it, and I know it.”
“Fuck,” John whispers.
“So, I had to break it off with her, but she’s so damn stubborn, and she was young and sweet, and I had to hurt her. Fuck, I had to break her heart, and it destroyed me. But I had to hurt her to save her. She couldn’t be anywhere near me.”
Stomach roiling, I look at my wife again, and she’s smiling at me through her tears.
“And then the son of a bitch died.”
“So, you swooped in and took her,” John says.
“No.” I shake my head. “It’s way worse than that. So much fucking worse. In the will, he added a clause that stated I wouldn’t inherit the ranch unless I got married within sixty days of the will reading. He left my sisters nothing.”
“You got married to my daughter to inherit your fucking ranch?” John bellows.
“John.” This is Joy, her voice hard. “Let that man speak, or I swear to God, you’ll be sleeping with the chickens for a month.”
“There is no one in this world that I would marry. No one. Except Millie. Jesus, I’ve loved her for the better part of a decade. And my sisters deserved so much more than what that bastard left them. So, I talked to Millie. I never lied to her. I never tricked her. I told her everything.”
John looks to Millie, who nods.
“And she agreed.”
“How much did he promise to pay you?” John asks her, his face bright red. “Because I’ll fucking double it to get you to leave him.”
“Dad,” she says, wearily now.
“Are you telling me that you won’t divorce him?”
“Of course, I’m not going to divorce him!” She comes down the steps toward him, so full of fire and indignation. “Jesus, I love him so much I might die. And this is not one of those but Daddy, I love him moments. Although, I do. But I love you, too! Why can’t I have both of you in my life? What could he have done to you that makes you hate him so much?”
“It wasn’t him,” John growls, and the pit in my stomach grows as he turns to glare at me. “Your fucking father killed my cattle every chance he got. He wanted Joy back in the day, and when she said no, he threatened to rape her. Threatened to kill her.”
“Jesus,” Remington mutters.
“He set traps on my land,” he continues, on a roll now. “He told everyone in town that I poisoned his cows. That I shot his animals. That I hit on his wife. Jesus.”
Shaking my head, I shove my hands through my hair again. I believe every word.
“That’s something he would do.” I nod at him. “He killed my mother.”
Dead silence.
“What was that?” John narrows his eyes at me and steps closer.
“Pushed her down the stairs. He did that a lot, liked to push her down the stairs. She wasn’t even forty and could barely walk a straight line from all the tumbles she took. But the last time? Well, she broke her neck on the second to the last step. I heard it snap.”
“Fuck me.” I think that’s Ryan.
“I was holding my infant sister, Charlie, at the time, feeding her,” I continue. “Dad laughed. Told me to call someone to come clean it up.”
Millie slips her hand into mine and holds on tight, and John’s gaze falls to our hands, then back to my face.
“Do you think you can hate him more than I do?” I ask, still on a roll. “He beat the shit out of my sisters. Tortured their animals. Why do you think I only have horses and cattle? It was fucking physical and psychological warfare in that house, every motherfucking day. So, I’ll ask you again, do you think that you can hate him more than me?”