Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Pretty much, from a young age, Keely was a slave to my dad.
Chevy, Copper, and I had done our best to mitigate the strain my dad put on her, but we were working our asses off from the time we were twelve and thirteen. We were running paper routes, mowing lawns, and doing anything and everything that twelve- and thirteen-year-old boys could do to make some extra money.
All of that money went into a pool, and the four of us had split it evenly, living on what we made.
Sure, our dad paid the mortgage and kept a roof over our heads, but he didn’t do much more than that. We were responsible for buying ourselves clothes, food, and whatever else we might need.
Meanwhile, our dad sat on his cash throne, and lorded over us, making our lives miserable as hell.
What we didn’t realize until later was that the moment our little sister turned thirteen, and started looking like a woman, our asshole father had started to turn his attentions on her.
At seventeen, Copper had come home from his after-school job early because he’d gotten hurt at work. He’d walked in through the back yard because he’d wanted to check on our dog, and when he’d come in the back door, it was to see our father trying to force himself on Keely.
Keely who’d just given up and showed no fight.
Copper had lost his fucking mind, and when the dust settled, our father was dead.
He’d taken one too many fists to the temple and hadn’t survived the trauma.
And because of who our father was outside of the home—a prominent, well-loved real estate mogul who was a cherished member of society—a judge had thrown the book at Copper.
Copper’s reasoning behind his lost control wasn’t a good enough reason, and he’d been given the max amount of time they could give to him without outraging the public—and trust me, the trial was huge, and the public had been closely watching.
So, at seventeen and three-quarters, Copper had been sent to the biggest and most secure penitentiary in Texas to serve his sentence.
After that had gone down, Chevy, Keely and I had been forced to live with our grandparents in Michigan, a whole day’s drive away from Copper.
The moment that I’d turned eighteen, I’d joined the Navy in hopes that I could help support Keely and Chevy.
Nine months after me, Chevy had graduated and joined the Navy as well.
That left Keely all by herself in Michigan.
She’d stayed the last year before she’d flown the coop the moment that she turned eighteen and had also followed us into the Navy.
In our travels, we’d all come down to visit Copper as much as we possibly could.
To help him when he did finally get out, Chevy, Keely and I were saving twenty-five percent of our income and putting it into a high-yield account that would hopefully set Copper up for life when he came out.
Because that was what we all owed him. Our lives.
It could’ve been any of us that had walked in that day and come up on that scene, and all of us would’ve reacted the same way.
It was the least we could do.
And it pissed off Dorie that I wouldn’t spend the hefty sum of money on a house for us.
Which was quite funny because I’d never seen Dorie as anything more than a steady fuck.
I’d never given her promises.
I’d never seen her as anything more than a pussy in my bed every night that I didn’t have to worry about STDs with.
Maybe it was better this way.
Maybe tomorrow I’d look into a new place. One that wasn’t known by a certain someone.
Though, just sayin’, but I doubted it’d be any better than the one I had now.
After my run, I got home to a luckily empty house and took a shower.
Once I was clean, I got dressed in my work clothes and headed over to the shop on my bike.
I was a carpenter and had been for a couple of years now.
I started my own business a few months after getting out of the Navy, and my grandfather, who was all alone up in Michigan, moved down to Texas to help me.
He was the first person I saw when I pulled into the lot.
He was bent over a piece of maple, running his hands over it lovingly.
That was one good thing about moving up to Michigan for a year.
Granddad had taught me everything I knew, and he was the reason that I had the skills to do what I loved.
He’d taught me a way to release the anger that I had built inside, and he’d done that by giving me an outlet.
Needless to say, in that year that he’d taught me his trade, I’d fallen in love with it.
Not enough to stop myself from joining the Navy and seeing the world, but enough that when I was done with the world, I could come home and still live a good life.