Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“I get that,” I said. “Especially the part about becoming your sister’s guardian. I was eighteen and had been working for the past three years. First, it was babysitting gigs, and then the minute I could legally get a higher paying, more consistent job, I did. I worked after school—sometimes during—as a server at this local café that was near our house. I could walk, so it made it easier to get more shifts. I saved up almost everything I made except for when I needed to pay the electric bill to keep heat on in the house in the winter or to feed us, never knowing when my parents would actually pay the bills or buy groceries. But once I turned eighteen, I had a good chunk of money saved up that I’d planned on using to get an apartment for Brecken and myself far away from them.”
I shook my head as emotion clogged my throat. I focused on the clouds outside of the window as I continued. “I didn’t realize the legalities of the situation. She was only eight, and I was a naïve teenager with a dream of escaping our tragic little home. I didn’t realize the legal battle that came with trying to take my baby sister out of our parents’ home. It didn’t matter how awful they were, they still had rights. It took all of my savings and a year of fighting them before they finally signed over the rights to me. But once that was done, I had her, and we were safe. We were hungry, but we were safe. After I got my feet underneath me, I could at least keep us fed. Then I worked a little harder, saved up a little more, and now look at her,” I said, beaming as I pulled out my phone and showed him a picture of Brec standing outside her dorm building. “She’s at NYU.”
For the time being.
“She looks so happy,” Crossland said as I pocketed my phone. “They made you pay for the rights?” he asked, sympathy coating his eyes.
I grimaced and nodded. “Yep, but it was for the best,” I said, even though my hands shook every time I thought about it. “I would’ve paid way more in legal fees if they wanted to drag it out for years, and I think in the end they knew I would win. They knew I would push and push and testify to their neglect and that I would never give up. Never leave her there with them. And hey, they wanted ten grand, so they got ten grand, and I…” I tried to catch my breath, the emotion surrounding the story swirling inside me.
“And you,” Crossland said. “Practically became a mother.”
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. I had become a mother. Brecken had been eight, and it’d been hard. I’d been clueless on how to do things, but I at least knew how not to do them.
Crossland shook his head, and I could see the struggle written all over his features.
“It’s okay,” I said, and really meant it. “I’ve mostly healed from the past. Are there times it creeps back up and threatens to shatter me completely? Definitely. But more often than that, I’m just happy to be where I’m at today, and that’s with Brecken at NYU, regardless of how long I might have to work to keep her there.”
Crossland grinned. “You know three months isn’t really that long in the grand scheme of things or do you really think that you’re not going to make it to the end of this contract?”
I cringed slightly. “I don’t know why I keep forgetting I’m getting paid for this,” I said. “Part of me still feels like it’s not real. Like the rug will be ripped out from underneath me at any moment.”
Crossland leaned forward slightly, looking as if he might reach across and take my hand.
He didn’t. He held my eyes with his.
“It’s real, Aspen,” he said. “I promise. You saw the contract yourself and signed it. This is your job now, one that will hopefully help take some of that stress off of you by the end. And you’re already doing so well.”
I laughed at that and swallowed down the emotion that rose inside me with his words. He really meant it. I could tell that much, but it didn’t stop me from thinking that all of this would come crashing down on top of me. I’d lived that way my entire life, always waiting for the next blow to come or a new price I’d have to pay. I couldn’t change that, no matter how much I healed.
“We’ve only officially been together for two hours,” I said, smiling at him.
He leaned back in his seat, cocking a brow at me. “Four weeks, Aspen. Four marvelous, bliss-filled weeks.”