Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 60711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Andie finally reached them, and Joyce pasted a smile on her lips without hesitation. She decided then and there that it was her niece whose hair she wanted to tear out, and if she played her cards right, she might just get to do that.
“Aunt J-Joyce—”
Joyce wanted to puke at the way Andie’s stammer had Paul Mitropoulos looking rather fiercely protective.
And here she thought the billionaire was smarter than most, but obviously not.
“Oh, darling, there’s no need to look so worried.” Joyce drew her niece into a hug and barely managed to resist the urge to slap her face. “I’m no sore loser, and after the speech your husband just gave, only an idiot wouldn’t see how dear you are to him.” She then turned to Paul, asking, “I’m sure you already have everything covered, but if you need any help from me with the expected fallout, I can issue a press statement on my niece’s behalf—”
“What fallout?”
The frown on Paul’s face nearly had Joyce doing a little dance. Just as she thought, the little bitch hadn’t been entirely truthful with the billionaire, and Joyce would make sure that Andie’s dishonesty would lead to a quick divorce, minus any kind of alimony.
“Paul—”
Oh don’t you even dare think you can get away with this, you bitch.
Joyce quickly cut her niece off with a reassuring smile. “It’s fine, darling. Your mom and I might not always see eye to eye, but blood is thicker than water, and I really want to do this for you.”
A muscle started ticking in Paul’s jaw. He was missing something in context here, obviously. But what?
He turned to his wife, asking quietly, “Is there something you want to tell me?”
“I...I...”
“Stop trying to frighten the poor girl,” Joyce censured. “Just because she’s looking a little nervous doesn’t mean she’s lying. Since you’re not the type to just up and marry a girl without checking her background, I’m sure you’ve already gotten her to admit to why she came to me in the first place. And obviously, since you still married my niece, then you’ve forgiven her for wanting to invest in an abortion clinic—”
What the hell?
Joyce feigned confusion at the way Paul jerked at her words. “Why are you—surely you knew she needed money—”
Paul kept waiting for his wife to deny her aunt’s claims, but all she did was shake her head as her eyes started to brighten with tears.
“$55,000 to be exact...”
No. Fuck. No.
In his mind, Paul heard something...laugh.
Jeeringly. Cruelly. Insidiously.
This is what you get for believing in fairytales.
Wake up, you idiot.
Did you really think God was real?
Chapter Sixteen
ANDIE SAT NEXT TO HER mother in the bank manager’s office, her hands clasped so tightly in her lap that her knuckles had gone white.
The office was small. Ordinary. A desk cluttered with papers, family photos in cheap frames, a wilting plant on the windowsill. The kind of room where nothing extraordinary should ever happen.
But the words coming out of Mr. Henderson’s mouth were shattering her world.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Jackson.” His voice was heavy with genuine regret. “Your accountant—he scammed you. The retirement fund, the savings, all of it. Gone.”
Andie couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t think.
Could only stare at the man’s tired face as he delivered the final blow.
“If you can’t pay the outstanding mortgage by the end of two weeks...” He spread his hands helplessly. “You’ll lose your home.”
The bus ride back was silent.
December had frosted the windows, turning the Kansas landscape into a blur of white and gray. Andie pressed her forehead against the cold glass, watching farmhouses and bare trees slide past without really seeing them.
Fifty-five thousand dollars.
That was what they needed.
Fifty-five thousand dollars in two weeks, or her mother would lose the house she’d lived in for thirty years. The house where Andie had taken her first steps. The house where her father had died. The house that held every memory that mattered.
Gone.
All of it, gone.
Unless she could find a miracle.
Her mother’s hand closed over hers.
Warm. Steady. Inexplicably calm.
“It’s okay, sweetheart.” Dolores’s voice was soft, peaceful in a way that made no sense given what they’d just learned. “God will make a way for us.”
Andie forced herself to smile.
She didn’t say anything.
Couldn’t say anything, not when her throat was tight with all the words she wanted to scream. Words like “how” and “when” and “what if He doesn’t.”
Her mother had changed lately.
Dolores Jackson had always been nice. Proper. The kind of woman who baked casseroles for sick neighbors and never missed a Sunday service. But she’d also been stressed. Worried. Carrying the weight of single motherhood and medical bills and a life that never seemed to get easier.
Ever since she’d started attending that new church, though...
Something had shifted.
Her mother had become inexplicably peaceful. Content in a way Andie didn’t understand. Even now, facing the loss of everything they had, Dolores wasn’t worried.