Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
I could see why he’d prefer his bike.
Sometimes getting anything accomplished in this overwhelming city seemed impossible.
If you wanted to get anywhere fast, you were always hitting traffic.
If you were thinking, ‘oh, I’ll just avoid this road altogether’ the road you took instead would be backed up.
I didn’t drive anywhere in town without putting the address into my GPS, if only to make sure that I got there as quick as possible and avoided an hour traffic jam.
“Today, you can hang out in my office,” he said. “I already got a daycare spot for Holt. Had Apollo send everything over that they would need last night, along with making sure that they knew that the kid belonged to the CEO.”
“He doesn’t belong to you, though,” I murmured. “Won’t they think it’s a little weird that you just appeared with a baby?”
“No,” he snorted. “Nothing that I do at the stupid place has rhyme or reason.”
“Why do you call the place stupid?” I asked.
“Because it is,” he murmured. “I hate this place with every fiber of my being. If I didn’t partially own it with my family and want to see it burn to the ground like I do, I’d have walked away a long time ago.”
That had me insanely curious. “You don’t like your job?”
“I thought I would like it, once upon a time,” he responded as he pulled the car into a parking space that had CEO PARKING ONLY on the sign in front of the space. “But that changed when I went to prison. The desire to be in the business world just isn’t there anymore.”
“Then why are you here?” I asked bluntly.
He turned to me, and his green eyes blazed as he said, “To watch it burn to the ground with every single person that was loyal to my father along for the ride.”
I didn’t get a chance to question him further because he got out of the car then leaned the seat forward to get Holt and his car seat out.
I was relieved that he didn’t make me do it.
God, I was such a piece of shit mom.
I hadn’t even checked on him today.
Copper had gotten up with him in the middle of the night. Copper had gotten him changed and dressed this morning. Copper had fed him the milk that I’d expressed in the middle of the night while I cried and listened to Copper do the work.
What kind of parent was I that I didn’t care who woke up with him in the middle of the night?
More so, what kind of person was I that I would just thrust my baby at a man who clearly had no parenting experience and expect him to take care of my kid?
But the relief of having someone help? It was overwhelmingly extravagant.
I wanted to roll around in the feeling and bask in its greatness.
“Are you getting out or what?”
I got out at Copper’s annoyed tone, hurrying to walk with him as he marched into the building like he owned the place—which, technically, he did.
The place was enormous, and downright beautiful, but in an overly pretentious way.
It looked stuffy, and not nearly anything like I expected it to look like.
I was thinking cozy and welcoming while also seeming professional, but this place looked like a normal person couldn’t walk through the lobby without checking to make sure they didn’t have dirt on their shoes.
Although Copper fit the part with his suit and shiny shoes, I certainly didn’t.
He walked through a back door that he had to use a keycard to get into, then stopped at a security desk to scan his ID.
He spoke briefly with the security guard, explaining who I was, and that I could come and go at will, and then jerked his head toward the rest of the lobby.
“Daycare is on the second floor. When Keely’s husband, Dima, pointed out all the safety concerns, we moved the vulnerable to the second floor to make sure that no one could access the floor that wasn’t supposed to be there. Now, only parents, security personnel, and a few other key people have access to it,” he explained.
I should probably be happy about those safety measures…
I shut the thought off before it could take root.
Questioning myself and my lack of mothering instinct wouldn’t get me anywhere.
I was on day two of my depression medication, and I had yet to feel a difference.
Though, the doctor did say that it would take a while for me to start really noticing the effects of the medication.
Which sucked.
I wouldn’t have minded an instant fix to my less-than-stellar enthusiasm when it came to my son.
He didn’t deserve my issues.
He didn’t deserve a mother like…
“Stay with me,” Copper snapped in my face.
I swallowed hard and stayed with him all the way to the second floor where we dropped Holt off with a bunch of other kids.