Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I again tried to interrupt her word vomit, but she kept going as if I’d already agreed.
“We’ll get the shower fixed in your apartment, but for now, you’ll have to take it down in the tack room in the barn. It’s just down the stairs.” She drew in a deep breath. “It’s really not that far. But you have to go out in the main barn to do it, and it might be kind of weird, I know. But Dad said that if he found the right person, he’d get it fixed up really quick.” She sighed. “When Mom left, Dad was trying to get this apartment fixed up. He’d completely finished out the entirety of the apartment. Kitchen. Small laundry area. And he was working on the bathroom. But when Mom left, she went in and cut all the pipes downstairs and upstairs. Dad didn’t know she’d cut it so he completely finished up the walls. The paint. Everything. Then when he turned the water on the first time after he was done with the bathroom, it flooded everything. Fucked the walls up. He had to completely demolish the bathroom. And there are a few things structurally wrong now. Apparently Mom didn’t just stop at cutting the pipes. She also used a saw to cut structural beams. That’s not Dad’s wheelhouse. That’s why he’s waiting for Uncle Koen.”
I just shook my head, unable to believe that Juliana would be so cruel and petty.
“Dad won’t talk bad about Mom,” DeeDee sighed. “But she’s a bad person. She left because she was bored. I’m not joking. She’s bored. She wanted to go on vacations like her friends. But you know as well as I do that you can’t just leave a cattle ranch with our kind of operation. If you did, you’d have dead cows. Though Dad said that he would hire more hands to work so he could go for a week. But Mom wanted three weeks. She also wanted Dad to go out and party with her. Does my dad look like the kind of person that goes out to clubs and parties? I mean, he hangs out with the Dixie Wardens all the time. But Mom wasn’t wanting that kind of party. She wanted to dance at a club and have fun and drink. Like she’s eighteen. Then she always threw in Dad’s face that he knocked her up at eighteen. Which was hilarious because my mom was the one who said that she was on birth control. Dad was just stupid for trusting her. Joe, Catalina, and I were talking after Mom left, and we think that Mom got pregnant on purpose.”
“DeeDee,” I started, but she kept talking.
“I mean, Dad gave her literally everything. She was a stay-at-home mom. She had a cook and a cleaner. Grams was always here to help with us when Mom asked until lately. Uncle Sawyer also took us to practices and school sometimes. That’s another thing. Mom refused to leave the house to take us to school. She always had someone else doing it.” DeeDee groaned. “She never came to our sporting events. Our FFA—Future Farmers of America—events. But you bet your ass she always had time for her coffee dates with her friends, or when they’d meet up in the big city to go shopping.”
I definitely scented some resentment here.
And I hated this, but I was beginning to feel sorry for Denver when it came to the wife he chose.
“Catalina said that she doesn’t want to go over to Mom’s anymore,” DeeDee said. “Dad has full custody but Mom has visitation every Wednesday and every other weekend. But none of us really want to go over there. We don’t like how she tried to take Daddy to the cleaners.”
I blinked. “She did what?”
“You’re not going to believe this,” DeeDee continued. “She literally tried to take half of the ranch. If it wasn’t in the Windsor trust, she might have. As is pretty much everything. Our cars. Our equipment. The cows. Everything. As it was, she literally took half of Dad’s savings. And Daddy has to pay her alimony—on top of child support in the beginning. Since she never had a job and ‘raised us’ the last sixteen years. The judge awarded her with five thousand dollars a month. Can you believe that? He has to pay it for two years. Long enough for my mom to go back to school. Though if she gets married, Dad doesn’t have to pay it anymore.”
“Whoa,” I breathed.
“Yeah,” DeeDee said. “Come look at the apartment. I’ll tell Dad that you’re coming.”
My stomach sank. “I can…”
“Have a good rest of your day, Holly! Thanks for saving Greta!”
My shoulders sank as she hung up.
“What was that about?”
Boone.
“Uh.” I hesitated. “Well…”
His brows rose as he studied my face closely.