Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
“What about her sister?” Ronan asked.
“She lives in Texas, and they’re not close. I don’t know if Lily would go to Clem.”
“Call her,” his grandfather suggested. “Just in case she ends up there.”
“Has she got a credit card?” Ronan asked. “Any way of getting money?”
“No, she doesn’t have anything.” Which was stressing him out. “Well, there was a credit card from her mother but I doubt it has anything on it.”
“Let’s see if we can get Paddy to trace it anyway. Don’t worry, we’ll find her,” Ronan said.
They had to find her because he couldn’t imagine living without her.
36
This wasn’t working. She couldn’t just lie in this motel bed and do nothing. She couldn’t just stay here and rot away.
Lily had to make her life mean something.
Maybe she wasn’t what Harvey deserved or needed, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t contribute something to the world.
She hated to think that her life would just end, and she hadn’t done a thing with it. Maybe she could turn things around. Perhaps she could become somebody stronger, someone with purpose.
Get a job. Make friends.
Be someone who deserved Harvey, although she knew he would quickly move on. How could he not? Someone like him wasn’t meant to be alone. He was meant to have someone amazing, someone who could support him. Care for him.
Someone like Amanda. Who was independent and confident.
However, she figured the only way to move forward was to fix what was in the past.
Perhaps she couldn’t fix everything that had happened. It wasn’t like she could erase her mother’s betrayal and what Dr. Wallace had done to her. It wasn’t like she could go into the minds of everybody who’d seen those videos and wipe them clean.
Paddy had discovered who the doctor was sending money too. It was someone at his old practice who was obviously blackmailing the doctor. Ronan had told Paddy to drop it. The police would work out that part and it wasn’t really of interest to them.
What was of more interest was who was paying to watch the videos the doctor had been making. That part was proving trickier, though.
Lily felt bad for leaving the way she had. But she knew that if she’d stayed to talk to Harvey, he’d have convinced her to stay.
Would that have been so bad?
More nights at the movies? Laughing at killer appliances. Eating grilled cheese for dinner at the kitchen island.
Lily sighed unhappily. She missed him so much that it was an ache inside her. God, she hoped she was doing the right thing.
Everything in her life felt so half-finished. Without closure.
Well, there was one part she might be able to get some closure on.
And she finally knew what she needed to do next.
A few days later, she drove up the driveway of Grandma June’s property. The potholes had actually been repaired, so the drive was smooth.
To her amazement, when she’d pawned her jewelry and handbag, she’d managed to get quite a bit of money. The pawnshop guy had practically salivated over her handbag.
Weird.
With some of the money, she’d bought a bus ticket, but it had taken her a few days to get to Texas. The bus had stopped in Freestown and she’d realized she somehow had to get from Freestown to Grandma June’s.
Luckily, there had been a cheap car for sale on the side of the road. She’d bought an inexpensive phone before heading off on the bus and had used it to call the number on the sign. The owner had driven over quickly and sold the car to her for a very reasonable amount. That probably meant there was something wrong with it, but she couldn’t keep staying in motels. So at least she could now sleep in her car.
She came to a stop outside the small house. It wasn’t quite as she remembered it. It looked like Clem had been doing some updates. The siding looked new, and so did the windows. There was a large porch built around three sides. Plus, the roof also looked new.
Then she remembered that there had been a fire. They had rebuilt quickly.
Getting out of the car, she glanced around. She wondered where Clem was.
She walked up to the front door, but there was no answer when she knocked. The door was slightly open, which surely meant that Clem wasn’t far away.
She spotted the large barn and decided to head that way. It was far more likely that Clem was in the barn than anywhere else.
As she moved toward it, a rooster started squawking.
Wow, that was loud. She gazed up at the roof of the barn and saw the rooster glaring down at her. Well, that was how it felt, anyway.
Could a rooster glare? Probably not.
She stepped into the barn and looked around. There wasn’t much in here other than some hay.