Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
“Thanks, Mom. It wasn’t fun—that’s for sure.”
“And Chase?” she asked.
“Fine.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Not the way I heard it.”
“Well, he has a black eye.”
She sighed heavily. “I’m really sorry, sweetie. I sent you after him because I wanted you to have your moment alone. Not to get bombarded by your brothers. If it’s any consolation, Eve really went after Whitt about it last night.”
I laughed. “Oh man, I wish I could have seen that.”
“I know you don’t want to hear this with everything else, but you should really call your father.”
I froze at those words. Call my father. Owen fucking Wright. The man who had manipulated me into going to the law school he wanted. Who had thrown a tantrum the second he found out I hadn’t done what he wanted. Who constantly ruined everyone’s life he touched.
“No.” The word left my mouth before I could think.
“Honey.”
“No,” I said more firmly. “Absolutely fucking not. He is the reason that all of this happened in the first place.”
My mom sighed softly. “You could have told your brothers about your relationship. They didn’t have to find out the way that they did.”
She was right. I could have told them at any time. And they would have reacted the same way. But the fact that Owen had done this on purpose was inexcusable. Not to mention that when he’d found out the information, his first instinct had been how to use it against me. I owed him nothing. Not ever again.
“Will you ever see the worst in him, Mom?” I asked instead of the torrent of anger that foamed at my mouth.
“Will you ever see the best?”
“No,” I told her. “I don’t see anything good in him.”
“He’s your father.”
“He might as well not be for all that he did to raise me. You were there every day, Mom. Whitt and West were around. Even Grandma and Grandpa were around. Owen might as well just be a sperm donor.”
My mom winced at those words. I hadn’t meant to hurt her, but God, it was the truth. Why was she the only one who didn’t see it?
“I suppose it’s easy to see it that way from your perspective,” she said softly.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I know you loved him, but even you have to admit that he used you and hurt our family. He was never what you deserved.”
“What’s going on over here?” Whitt asked as he strode out of his bedroom. My brother was, of course, in a black suit with a blue tie knotted tight at his throat. He didn’t even have work today. He just couldn’t help himself.
“Just talking,” Mom said, backing away from the painful conversation she never wanted to have. Easier to look at anything but in the mirror.
Whitt looked me over with a sigh. “How are you this morning, Harley?”
“Been better,” I told him. “Heard your night wasn’t as great as you’d imagined either.”
“Considering I’d thought I was going to be spending the night with my fiancée and not relegated to the couch,” he muttered under his breath.
Fiancée. Gah, as mad as I was at him, I loved that he’d proposed yesterday. That Eve was going to be my sister soon. That made Bailey a sister in truth, too.
“Eve sent you to the couch in your own house?”
“I sure did,” Eve said. She was in a knee-length green dress and her signature black leather Louboutin heels. Her dark hair was long down her back in supermodel waves. “Well, for part of the night.”
Whitt shot her a look of abject devotion. “It was fair. Yesterday was…a lot.”
“Is that an apology?” I asked.
Whitt said nothing. Eve cleared her throat noisily.
“Were you expecting one?” he asked.
I huffed. “You’re ridiculous. I texted West, Jordan, and Julian, and they’re on their way over to talk about this.”
“We have brunch plans,” he said, gesturing to their attire.
Eve rolled her eyes. “Canceled plans. You need to fix this, Whitton.”
Oh, pulling out his whole name.
He sighed, as if already knowing that he’d lost. “Fine. Let’s talk.”
Eve smirked and stepped toward me, pulling me into a hug. “Before you get in with the guys, just know that I’m so fucking happy for you.”
“Thanks, Eve.”
She pulled back but kept her hands on my shoulders. “Seriously, Chase Sinclair is a good guy. None of you are like your dad, and he isn’t like his. We shouldn’t judge him based off of his entire family if y’all don’t want to be judged off of your bad apple.”
The words were directed at me, but I could feel Whitt tense across the room. We weren’t Owen. Chase wasn’t Arnold. And Eve would know. She’d dated Chase’s dad after all. She knew the depths of his treachery and had come out on top anyway. I appreciated her saying it.
A knock at the door pulled us apart. Whitt yanked it open to find Jordan and Julian standing at the threshold. Both men were in a suit and looked like they were going to be heading to church at any second. West was jogging up the drive in ripped jeans and a band shirt. He was definitely not heading to church. He had to leave in the afternoon to get back on the road with his band, Cosmere. They were touring for another month. Right up until West’s wedding with Nora.