Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 95906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
But come morning as the sun rose over the horizon, reality returned, and my carefully constructed dream world fell away. The only silver lining was that our quasi-warden was usually nowhere to be found.
When Con had suggested we leave the city both to get the kids out of Ricky and Clara’s reach and to give me some time to heal, I’d immediately refused. Granted, I’d still been reeling from Con’s admission that it was like I’d suspected… he was only helping us out of guilt. I was the red in his ledger that he wanted to wipe clean.
I should have been celebrating my little victory but hearing the man admit what I’d known to be true had hurt.
Really fucking hurt.
Though, for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why. I’d learned early on that you didn’t get something for nothing in this world. It had been a hard lesson to learn but God knew it had been drilled into my head over and over in the past fifteen or so years. So the fact that Con wanted to eliminate whatever supposed guilt he felt for what he’d done to Brady shouldn’t have surprised me.
Or bothered me.
He was just showing his true colors.
Finally.
After I’d gotten past the initial sting of his admission, I’d forced myself to focus on Con’s explanation for why getting out of the city was the best course of action. What had finally sold me on the plan was when he’d brought up the issue of Christopher and what being thousands of miles away from Ricky and Barry could do for him. After that, it had only taken Con’s reassurance that I wouldn’t be charged with anything for taking the kids out of state since no one would know where we were. On the off chance that someone began asking questions, it would be as simple as getting on Con’s private plane and returning to New Jersey before anyone was the wiser.
Yeah, private jet.
The guy had his own plane.
Although technically, it supposedly wasn’t his. He’d told Rory it belonged to one of his brothers. My niece had been beyond fascinated and had practically interrogated the man from the time we’d taken off until the time we’d landed. Despite the fact that Christopher and I had sat as far from Con as we could, I’d still found myself trying to listen to the conversation between the MMA world champion fighter and my niece who’d fidgeted excitedly in her seat, her small hands toying with the fabric of the tutu Con had gotten her.
It turned out that the man didn’t do anything in small measure. From the moment I’d agreed to his plan, he’d taken it upon himself to buy new clothes and supplies online for all three of us. Christopher and I had kept our list of needs small, but Rory had ended up with a whole new wardrobe of dresses, skirts, pajamas, shoes, hair care products, and a crate full of new toys. But it hadn’t stopped there. Before I’d even realized it, Con had ordered tablets and laptops for both kids. He’d done the same for me along with a cell phone.
I’d kind of lost my shit when I’d realized how much debt Con was racking up on my behalf and the whole arrangement had nearly fallen through when I’d told Con I would be paying him back every cent that he spent on us. Since I wasn’t exactly rolling in cash, I’d told him to return the majority of the clothing and all of the gadgets. When he’d steadfastly refused, I’d told him the whole thing was off and that was when he’d come up with the idea of me working for him.
He’d quoted me a ridiculously high hourly wage to do nothing more than a little bit of cooking and cleaning while we stayed with him. I’d ended up agreeing, though I’d made him drop the wage to a more reasonable amount since the last thing I was interested in was taking any kind of charity from him. I’d ended up winning that battle but when it had come time to insist he return all of the things he’d bought us, I’d been the one to falter.
After seeing the kids enjoying their new things, including Christopher who’d gone positively wide-eyed when he’d learned what an ebook was and how many books were now available to him through the online section of the library, I’d relented and let them keep everything. But I’d made Con return the tablet and laptop he’d gotten me. I’d only agreed to keep the cell phone so that I could have it for emergencies, but I’d made him get me a cheap, disposable one instead and I’d used what little cash I had to pay for it. Con had been less than thrilled when I’d begun a running list of the cost of all the other items, but he hadn’t fought me on it.