Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“What?” Travis barked. Jake nodded his head toward where I was standing.
Travis’s gaze followed. And I watched a whole lot of nothing cross his face. Even as his eyes moved over his daughter.
“I told you we’re done.”
“Oh, my God. You’re Zo2.0!” Sadie gasped as her gaze skimmed over me. “There have been so many people online wondering what happened to you.”
“He happened to me,” I said, looking at Travis, who refused to glance in my direction.
“Get her out of here, Jake.”
“I, uh, I think you might need to hear her out,” Jake said, shifting his feet, uncomfortable at having to disobey a direct order.
I couldn’t even blame him.
I’d once seen Travis slam him against a wall, his forearm across Jake’s throat, as he screamed in his face.
“Fucking fine. The girl is being fucking useless today anyway. Inside,” he barked as he passed me by.
In my arms, Lainey jumped, and I had to give her a wiggle and a kiss to calm her back down.
That was why I’d been willing to walk away, not to take him to court, and to let him wash his hands of us.
Because he was toxic.
Because I couldn’t let my little girl be around her cruel, selfish, demanding father.
My worst fear was she would be a super cute toddler. Who he would then exploit for views and money.
It was safer to try to make my way on my own.
Yet here I was.
I turned back to Sadie, who seemed to be fighting a battle against tears.
“Get yourself on birth control,” I told her, watching as her gaze moved to me, to my daughter, then back. Realization was clear on her face. And grief.
She wasn’t the first.
She wouldn’t be the last.
Travis wasn’t a boyfriend.
He was a content farm.
And he would continue to use, exploit, and discard women the second they lost their worth. Or the views dropped.
“And make an escape plan,” I added before turning and walking back into the house.
I knew exactly where to find Travis.
In the library—complete with fake books on the built-in shelves—pouring himself some whiskey into a red plastic cup.
“I told you never to come back here again.”
“Trust me, it’s the last place I want to be.”
“Say what you came to say. I have two more videos to film before bed tonight.”
“I didn’t come to say anything.”
He finally turned back to me, his gaze moving over me. Once, that lip curl of disgust would have shattered me. Now, it just made my chin raise.
“You’re not getting shit from me,” he said. “We agreed on that.”
There was no agreement at all.
Just a scared pregnant girl who had no idea that she actually had more power than he did in the situation.
“Travis, I know you will probably combust from trying to hold in all your asshole-ness for two minutes, but give it a try, would you?”
“Ooh,” Lainey hooted in agreement.
She wasn’t looking at her father the way she looked at Coast. She offered the biker her wide-eyed wonder, her big, gummy smiles. She almost seemed to be frowning at Travis.
“Well, look who developed a spine.”
“It’s amazing what being homeless and pregnant will do to build character,” I snapped back.
“Your choices aren’t my problem.”
“I could make them your problem, so stop being such a dick.”
His eyes flashed at me.
“You want me gone and gone for good, I just need—”
“Money,” he cut me off, gaze moving over my shorts and tee.
“I need to get out of my current place right now.”
“It’s always fucking money.”
“Says the guy who earned, what? A couple hundred grand off of me?” The eye roll he did made me think it might be significantly more than that.
Honestly, when I’d been driving to his house, I’d been trying to gear myself up to ask to stay for a night or two. Just until I figured out my next move.
But just five minutes in his presence made it clear I couldn’t stay.
So I would swallow my pride and take the money.
“Here,” he said, reaching into his pocket for his wallet, then tossing a couple hundreds on the table. Not all of the hundreds in his wallet, mind you. Greedy to the bitter end, he was. “Now get the fuck out.”
Again, Lainey jumped at the sound of his voice, at the bite behind it.
God, I hated him.
More now than I did then.
But then he opened his mouth and made it even worse.
“You know, you should have gotten rid of it,” he said, gaze flicking over our daughter. “You could still be living here, making your little dance videos, enjoying living in the lap of luxury.”
“It,” I repeated, voice venomous, “is a she. And she is the only good thing your selfish, arrogant, evil, ugly ass ever gave to me. Keep your money. I don’t need anything from you.”
I did.
I desperately did.
But I’d be damned if I took it.