Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“You’re the mundane one, Amelia. The fact that you can’t see that is what makes you mundane. You think the world works one way, that everyone falls into one or two categories, and it’s simply not true. You can be highly educated and dumb as dirt when it comes to living. You can not have an education at all and understand the world better than a doctor. There is no one way to be happy.”
“Happy? There’s no such thing. It’s the same as the idea of love. There is only responsibility and success or failure. That’s what you cannot understand,” Amelia announced. “Louisa is going to be raised properly and with all of the privileges her father could have given her. You should have been the one in the car that night. It should have been you. He was going to divorce you. Dennis finally understood you weren’t worth having in his life, that he and Louisa needed a better female figure to depend on.”
The words hurt, but not as sharply as they would have mere weeks before. She was more than her marriage, more than a mom, and understanding her own worth would make her a better mom to Lou, a better partner to Boomer.
Hopefully someday a better wife.
“It doesn’t matter what you think. Lou is my child, and I will not allow you to separate us.” She needed to make herself plain to her mother-in-law. “You should understand that I know you’re trying to open a CPS case to strengthen your petition for custody. It won’t work. I suspect you had something to do with my condo getting trashed, and now that I think about it, you might have had someone breaking in and snooping around for a long time.”
Amelia’s expression shuttered. “You can’t prove anything.”
“No, I can’t. But I bet my boyfriend can.” Investigating was what Boomer did, and he had incredible resources that he would use to make sure they got to the truth. “You’ve obviously studied up on him. You should have done a little more research. You should have looked into his friends. They’re more like his family, and they are rapidly becoming mine, too. If you had, you might have learned that pissing off the Taggarts isn’t going to end well for you.”
There was a gasp from behind the wall, proving Lou was listening in. Damn it. She’d meant to ease her daughter into this situation.
Her little head came from behind the corner. “Grandmother’s taking on Kala’s dad? That is not going to go well.”
“You shouldn’t be listening in on your elders, young lady. You are supposed to be working on your report. Go back to your room while I talk to your mother.” Amelia didn’t seem to be willing to back down either. “You should be prepared to come home with me. Your grandfather and I have had enough of your mother’s selfish nonsense.”
She didn’t want to have this fight in front of her daughter, but Amelia wasn’t leaving her much of a choice. She was about to explain to Amelia that she would need to call the police if she planned on keeping Lou when Lou stepped into the hallway.
“And I’ve had enough of yours.” Lou held up her cell phone. “I’ve been recording you when you think I’m asleep. You’re not as quiet as you think you are, and the good news is you always put your phone on speaker when you think you’re alone. I have three conversations recorded, including one where you explain to the head of Hanover Prep that you intend to do whatever it takes to make my mom look like a bad mother so you can take control of me. You even admit that you hired a private investigator to follow me and Mom, and he’s been using the key you made from my house key to break into our house.”
Amelia’s face had gone a florid red, and Daphne knew she should talk to her daughter about the spying, but she couldn’t work up the will to.
Her daughter was kind of a badass.
“Lou, you should get your things. We’re going back to Dallas tonight.”
Amelia stood there, her jaw clenched so tightly that her words were ground from her mouth. “This is not over, Louisa.”
Lou turned to her grandmother—the one she should have been able to trust, who should have loved her no matter what. “It is unless you choose to move forward, but let me explain to you how that’s going to go. If you somehow manage to take me from my mother, I will consider that a declaration of war. I won’t fight fair. I won’t play your games. You can punish me, lock me up, threaten me with anything you like, but I won’t care because I will have one goal in life. That goal will be to make everyone understand that you are a terrible person. I’ll record every call I can, spread every rumor about you. I’ll tank my grades. I’ll fail because failing means you fail, too. You won’t be able to trust me to do anything. I will be your worst nightmare. So ask yourself this, Amelia. I’ll call you Amelia from now on because we’re past familial relations. What would be easier on you? A grandchild you never see because she isn’t worthy or the whole world seeing that your grandchild is an out-of-control monster and she only became that way when you took custody?”