Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46805 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46805 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Caden sat in the rocker he’d put together a few months ago and cradled Brooklyn on his lap. Her free hand grabbed a fistful of his T-shirt and held on for dear life. Slowly, he rocked her. “Oh, Brookie. You are so upset. What did I say?”
She hid her face on his chest and didn’t answer. Caden pressed a kiss to the top of her head, holding the delectable little girl close. He considered what he had said to her just before the tears started. “Did hearing the word home upset you?”
Brooklyn nodded with her nose still pressed to his chest.
“Do you miss your parents?” he asked, trying to guess what had made her so sad.
She nodded again.
“Are you crying because you haven’t seen them for a while?”
She shook her head.
As Caden considered what he should ask next, Brooklyn whispered, “I miss having a home.”
“Their house or your own?” he asked. Had Brooklyn always lived with her parents?
“I had a really nice apartment. It was small, but I painted the walls blue and hung up a few pictures I rescued from someone’s garbage. It was mine.”
“That sounds amazing, little girl. I bet you loved living there.” Caden stroked her back. To his delight, as he reassured Brooklyn, her breathing settled as her sobs eased.
“It was my happy place.”
“And then you met Brent?” he guessed.
“The worst day ever. I was so stupid,” she told him.
“No talking badly about yourself. That’s my first rule,” Caden said firmly. “I bet he was charming, and you were too young to pick up on his negative traits.”
She leaned back and stared at him in shock. “How did you know?”
“Everyone usually has a love interest that teaches them what’s important and what to avoid. For me, that person was Susan. I thought she was perfect and almost didn’t recognize myself by the time I figured out she had taken over my life in a bad way.”
“What did she do?” Brooklyn asked, focused on his face.
“My friends tried to tell me, but I didn’t listen. Then I returned unexpectedly after being deployed for a couple of months. I surprised her at work. When I showed up at her office, they’d never heard of Susan Zigler. The receptionist called HR to double check.”
“She’d lied to you?”
“That wasn’t the worst lie. I headed to our apartment, thinking I must have screwed up what she’d said. I let myself into the apartment and found her in bed with someone else.”
“Oh, Caden! I’m sorry.” Brooklyn’s brown eyes clouded with tears again.
Quickly, he assured her. “That wasn’t a bad thing, Brookie. I needed to know. It was gut-wrenching at first, but when I think back, I could pick out a lot of warning signs I’d missed.”
“Was she your little girl?”
“No. That was one of the big red flags I let pass. She had shared she had fantasies of being little, but resisted any attempts I made to be her daddy.” His stomach still twisted into a sick knot when he thought about how she’d manipulated him and played on his desires.
“So, she lied?”
Caden smiled faintly at the anger in her voice. She didn’t like that someone had behaved so badly. “Very definitely. That’s one thing I am rigid about now. Don’t lie to me, little girl. I can handle everything else, but lying makes me shut down.”
“I don’t like lying either.”
“Can you tell me what happened to your beautiful apartment?”
“Brent. I met him in a class at community college. He was handsome and attentive. I was thrilled that he pursued me. Brent wanted to spend a lot of time with me. Finally, I invited him to move in.”
“Things changed after he got to your apartment?” Caden guessed.
“He wouldn’t let me see my friends and made me switch to online courses, so I didn’t have to leave the apartment. He even painted the walls this light gray color, saying it was the new in tone. Eventually the space I loved became my prison.”
“Did you move out?”
“When I tried to leave the first time, he hit me,” she whispered.
Clamping down at the burst of anger that consumed him, Caden forced himself to focus on Brooklyn. “Oh, Brookie. I’m so sorry, baby.”
“I filed a police report and kicked him out. The charges were dropped for lack of evidence. A ‘he said, she said’ situation, the cops told me. I packed up my stuff while he was out and ran. I’ve been running ever since.”
Caden didn’t trust himself to say anything. He clenched his teeth and continued to rock her. Brooklyn relaxed against his chest. When he had regained control from his urge to pound Brent into pulp, he suggested, “Shall we paint your room blue?”
She pushed away from his chest to look at him. Caden could see the hope in her eyes. “You don’t have to do that,” she told him.