Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 122074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
“Shut up.” My tone was low, calm.
Shorty knew me. He knew this wasn’t a good sign, and he quieted, his gaze locking right onto me.
“You told my grandfather that Molly’s mother was homeless. That wasn’t the truth.”
His eyebrows went low, and his gaze went to the file. He wet his lips, but he didn’t move to pick it up. From how I tossed it, pictures slid out from inside the file. There was a glimpse of one of those pictures, a woman.
“Look familiar to you?”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “Those people weren’t good to Molly’s mother.”
“Those people were goddamn saints compared to you.” I went over and flicked the file. More pictures spread out from it, and he was getting a front seat viewing of them.
“She has a grandmother. A grandfather. She has uncles, aunts. She has cousins.” I leaned over him. “She could’ve had brothers and sisters. She might’ve had nieces and nephews by now. But you lied. You took her away from her family. Molly’s mother. She was kind. Nice. I told her the truth, Marcus. You piece of shit. I told her the truth about her mother.”
His head jerked up, his eyes dilated but panicking. “You wouldn’t. That means—”
“My mom was an addict. I have no problem if people know that truth.”
He was back to looking for an escape route. His Adam’s apple on a continuous bobbing motion up and down.
I straightened back up, stepping out of his space. “I’m not going to kill you. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“Then what?” he asked, harshly. “I know you, Walden. This ain’t a lovely get-to-know-your-future-in-law chat. You’re winding up to deliver something—”
“You’re out.”
Now he shut up.
“Your story isn’t even anything remarkable. You saw a girl. You loved the girl. You wanted to take the girl away and make her just for yourself. You didn’t want to share, so you controlled her. You manipulated her. You twisted her sense of reality where, like so many sad, abusive stories, she slowly left her family and friends behind, and her life became about you. You and her child. But then she made a mistake, and she became friends with my mother, and that was the end of any hope Molly had in having her mother around for the rest of her life.” The table was shoved back, and I placed a hand on each side of Shorty’s chair, on his armrests, until he was trying to lean all the way down to get away from me. But it wouldn’t work.
I was in his space.
I liked making people uncomfortable, but making him squirm? I’d remember this day for years to come. This shit, I ate up.
“My mother took her mother away, so I gave her the truth in return. And then I had my PI look into her mother because I started thinking one day how fucking easy you lie about everything. Why would her mother be any different. I was right. You lied through your teeth. I want you to know that while you took away the chance for Molly to know the rest of her family, I gave them back to her. They’re good people. Farmers. One’s a doctor. One’s a social worker. A couple nurses. Teachers. Molly met them.”
He’d been back to looking around, always trying for a way out, but at the last statement, he stopped everything. His gaze jerked up to mine.
I stared down at him, drilling fucking holes into his skull. “They love her. We’ve been to visit three times already. They’ll be at our wedding one day.”
His eyes were filling with hate. He did not like hearing any of that, and he sneered up at me. “How’s that going to go? When they find out you’re Mafia?”
“They live in South Dakota. It’s not that big of an issue.” I waited a moment because maybe I shouldn’t relish this next part? But I did. I would. That was the darkness inside of me, the dark that would never leave because it was so intertwined with who I was. “I’m the one who asked Molly to get you to find Kelly’s killer. Did you ever put that together?”
His face was etched in stone, but now he let out a grunting sound. It sounded forced. “Course. Only made sense with you railing her.”
My fingers dug into the armrests. A whole new level of cold entered my body. “Why am I not surprised that’s how you talk about your daughter?”
He swallowed, looking away. Sweat broke out over his forehead; some of it started to slide down his face. “What do you want, Walden? You only ‘summon’ someone if there’s an order you’re going to hand out. I’m aware of my deal with your family. I still owe you.”
“No.”
He frowned, his eyes darting to mine. “What?”