Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 121210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“She’s saying I’m not the biological father,” Bennett chokes out somehow, causing another round of gasps that suck almost all the air out of the station and set me on my toes. I’ve never hit a woman, but if I thought I could get away with it right now without making the situation worse, I sure as hell would.
“Is that right?” Breezy challenges, unfazed by Jessica’s poison. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing we did a DNA test before Bennett ever left the state with her, then.”
“You have DNA?” the goofy goon behind her bumbles.
“Yes,” Breezy declares. “We have DNA, a signed affidavit swearing the money was not a bribe, and a signed transfer of full rights to Bennett for Summer. I don’t know what you think you have, but you don’t have jack shit.”
“You signed an affidavit?” the lawyer questions Jessica, his eyes widening in incredulity.
“I signed a lot of things, but I was coerced!” Jessica wails at the top of her lungs.
“Exactly!” Thomas shouts, and Breezy turns on him like a mama bear.
“You stay out of this!”
Bennett’s laugh is humorless. “He’s having a hard time staying out of it because he’s the one who convinced Jess to come. Right?”
Norah’s slimy ex and Summer’s shitty bio mom are both silent for a long moment, and Eleanor Ellis puts a defiant hand to her hip, anger vibrating off her body. “This is preposterous. Sheriff! This is all lies, every bit of it!”
Josie guffaws. “Don’t act like you’re innocent, Mother. You’ve had your hand in all of it.”
“Listen, folks, from what I’m hearing, Bennett is free to go,” Sheriff Pete interjects. He doesn’t hesitate to walk over to Bennett and remove his cuffs. “If there’s anything else to be settled, I suggest you file suit with the appropriate court.”
“This is bullshit,” Jessica cries, pointing at Thomas. “You said I could get more money! That’s the whole damn reason I even came!”
Her lawyer doesn’t give two shits. He already has his briefcase in hand and is heading for the door.
“The money’s gone, Jess,” Bennet says. “All that’s left is the daughter you never wanted. The daughter I would give anything to keep. So, I suggest you go back to wherever you’ve been because the only place you’re going in the company of this guy is prison.”
Eleanor and Thomas are still spouting bullshit, Jessica occasionally joining in with words that can’t hold water. But Bennett ignores the shitty crowd of people who came down here to try to make his and Norah’s lives hell.
“Pete, I’m leaving,” he says.
Sheriff Pete nods. “Okay, Ben.”
“I’ll drive you,” I offer, already pulling my keys out of my pocket and heading toward the exit.
But Bennett pauses midway to the door, and I turn to watch him as he stops in front of Norah. She looks so sad, so fucking sad. He whispers something in her ear, and her eyes shoot up to his. He says something else to her.
But all I can hear is her response. “I know.”
Bennett heads toward me, and I steal one final look at Josie. She stands there beside Norah, her arm now wrapped around her sister’s shoulder but her eyes on me.
Our people need taking care of, and today, we’re a team.
38
Josie
Wednesday September 1st
Norah’s breathing is shallow but sound, her eyes fluttering slightly with the restlessness of her sleep. I rub a hand over her back and pull the comforter higher, hoping to settle her some.
It’s a little after eleven, and with everything she’s been through in the last twenty-four hours, I’m not surprised she’s already passed out.
The guilt she carries over bringing the mess of Thomas and our mother to Bennett’s doorstep, while unnecessary, is at an all-time peak after this morning. Bennett having been pulled away from Summer’s bedside during some of her final moments, and whatever Bennett said to her while he was leaving the police station, hasn’t helped. I thought she’d still be at his house—with him and Summer—but instead, she’s been here for hours, the broken mess of her story eating her alive.
She’s more than the letter she got from a girl named Alexis on her would-be wedding day detailing the illegal and heinous acts our mother and Thomas have been involved in, and she’s more than a woman who begrudgingly brought it to the station like Bennett asked.
She’s powerful and strong and bighearted, and I know she’d sacrifice herself ten times over if Bennett and Summer needed her to.
She loves them both…fiercely. And her final goodbye to that sweet little girl this afternoon, on top of everything else, has been too much to bear.
When she got home this afternoon, I held her while she cried and buried my own feelings deep in the well of my stomach where I’ve been storing them for years. I wanted to be strong. To be steadfast. To help my sister in all the ways I haven’t been able to for years.