Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 155903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
“Faith, this isn’t like you. This is him.” Matt glared at Reuben. “I know you’re only upset because you care about me.”
“No, Matt. This is me. This is me being furious with you for everything you did to me. But not because I care about you. It’s because you ruined my dream and damaged my relationship with my family. Are you even a Daddy Dom?”
He looked ill. “God, no. I was just pretending to keep you with me.”
God. She was such an idiot.
“And were you sleeping with her while you were with me?” She gestured toward Shelby.
Matt grimaced. She took that as a yes.
“Well. I guess I should be grateful that you didn’t give me any diseases. God knows, Shelby’s had them all.”
“Hey, you bitch!” Shelby jumped toward her, but Reuben quickly stood in front of her while Matt grabbed Shelby.
“Let me go! Let me at that bitch!”
“Enough!” her father roared.
Faith stared over at him in shock. It wasn’t like her dad to ever raise his voice. Even Shelby grew quiet.
“I have been quiet for too long. You.” Her father pointed at Matt. “You are going to pay for what you’ve done to my daughter and our family.”
“Yeah?” Matt sneered. “What are you going to do? You’re just an old, washed-up, powerless farmer.”
“My dad won’t need to do anything,” Faith told him as she step. “Because I am going to ruin you.”
“You are?” He laughed. “Faith, you couldn’t even kill a spider in the shower. What are you going to do to me?”
“Well, first, you’re going to jail,” Reuben said, wrapping his arm around her.
“What?” Matt demanded.
“Hmm. But I don’t think that’s enough. I’m going to have to see what else I can do to make your life a complete and utter misery. I know plenty of people who can torture you in jail. Every. Single. Day.”
Faith swallowed heavily. She’d once loved this man. But he’d been emotionally abusive. He’d nearly destroyed her relationship with her family. He’d made her feel useless and a failure.
Yeah, he deserved everything he got.
Faith spotted the sheriff coming around the side of the house.
“I’m not going to jail, and you can’t harm me,” Matt said.
“Really? Because I discovered that you had some outstanding warrants in Utah. And Tennessee.”
Matt took a step back, just as the sheriff grabbed him and started reading him his rights.
“Faith! Faith, tell them to stop this!” Matt cried as he was led away.
She wondered if that would be the last she’d hear from him . . . somehow, she thought it might be. People who upset or hurt her had a habit of disappearing.
Faith turned away and into the arms of the man she loved with her entire soul held her close and whispered to her about how amazing and wonderful and beautiful she was.
She’d had to go through some horrible things to get to this . . . but it was all worth it for the man of her dreams.
EPILOGUE
“Ican’t believe that four days have passed already, and we have to go home tomorrow. I’m going to miss this place.” She swung Reuben’s hand back and forth as they walked to their motel room.
Her parents had invited them to stay at her childhood home, but Reuben had politely declined.
“We can come back, baby,” he told her gently.
“Yeah. We can.” There was still some healing that needed to happen between her and her family. But they would get there.
Corn and camellias.
She was so happy, though. Not about the stuff with Matt. She still felt like a fool for not realizing what a terrible person he was.
But she was happy to be home.
“And we have to get back home in time for Juliet’s visit.” She was finally going to meet Juliet and her men in person.
Reuben nodded. “That’s true. Do you miss not having your shop? Not being able to grow your flowers?”
She frowned as she thought about that. “Sometimes I do.”
He stilled and turned her toward him. “I don’t like the idea of you being out of my sight. I like you working for me, so I know where you are at all times.”
That wasn’t exactly a revelation.
“I know.”
“But if you want to open a shop again, I’ll make it happen.”
Shock filled her. “You . . . you will?”
“Yes.” He cupped her face with his hands. “I want you to be happy, Blossom.”
“I know you do.”
“Of course, there would be rules.”
“Of course,” she said.
“You’d need to have a bodyguard. And I’d prefer you have the shop in my building.”
“Your building? Wouldn’t the rent would be astronomical? And I’d need store frontage on the ground level.”
“It is. But we can make it work. You do sleep with the owner, after all.”
“I do? Wait. You own the whole building?”
“Of course.”
She rolled her eyes at him as he turned to unlock their motel room.