Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 70185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
“Henry. You made it.” I greeted my friend.
“Why can’t you call me Hank or Mancini like everyone else?”
“Why? Didn’t your mother name you Henry?” “Whatever, listen, I’ve got to run.”
“Oh yes, the concert.”
“Yeah, it’s tomorrow night, but there’s still a lot of work left to be done.”
“How is Lorde working out for you?”
“He’s pretty much what you said he has, but this is gonna be his first job with the squad, so we’ll have to see how it goes.”
“Didn’t he handle that thing in Nebraska?” “He did, but that’s small change compared to what we deal with. You know that.”
“Yeah.” A somber reminder of the world we live in.
“Oh, by the way, thanks for letting us use your boat.”
“Anytime. Tell your guys they didn’t do a very good job of cleaning up. I could still scent a trace of lion shit on my yacht.”
“Oh boy, OK, I guess we’ll get on that.”
“Oh, the big guy who keeps Face Timing you, that’s him?”
“Yeah, that’s Lyon.”
“He looks the part.”
“Really, you think so?
“Yeah, if you know what you’re looking for, you see beyond the Tattoos and the angry mug; you could see his regal bearing. It’s almost more regal than mine.”
“I’m pretty sure it is.”
“I bet. Oh, by the way, the kid Catalina, that’s his kid?”
“Yes.”
“You should make her your director in charge of finance.”
“Why do you say that?”
“She’s very good at getting money out of people.” “Why did she con you out of more money?”
“I wouldn’t say it was a con.”
“How much did you give her?”
“That’s between me and the lady.”
JUSTINE
Is it possible to be too happy? Is there some kind of cosmic occurrence that brings these things about?
‘Bitch you rambling.’
I know, but I can’t help it.
‘By the way, this dress you wearing, put it away somewhere you can grab it and go if the need arises.’
Why?
‘Because these are real diamonds, and your new rich ass is bound to fuck this up somehow, and we’d be for the streets. Just keep this in mind, this shit isn’t going to happen again in this lifetime, and it’s much easier to find a man with three kids than six.’
“SIX?” Oh shit, now everyone was looking at me. I had to play it off like I had a Bluetooth in my ear and walk away.
‘Keep it down. Didn’t I tell you three of those tadpoles made it to the egg and burrowed in like hibernating bears? You got three zygotes in there.’
All three made it past the second layer?
‘Yup. You took biology in school, didn’t you? So, you know what a zygote is. Those little bastards ain’t going nowhere. So you fuck around and end up on the streets with six kids. Or you could cop a squat with Paul and is crackhead bitch.’
I tried to walk away, but of course, there’s no escaping Justice.
Our honeymoon was on his yacht, one he said he’d just bought because his other was no longer suitable for family, whatever that meant. I’ve seen yachts, and I’ve seen cruise ships. This was somewhere in the middle. It’s huge.
There are bedrooms for all of us plus the staff and his security. It was the perfect honeymoon for a mother of three who would’ve worried about her kids each day if she’d left them behind. He knew that; he always knows the right thing to do.
“Why haven’t you been drinking on this trip? I noticed you didn’t touch your wine again at dinner.”
“Oh!” Dammit, one of the only drawbacks to having a man who’s so attentive to your needs. He tends to notice everything.
‘That’s a big change because the other one didn’t even notice he was missing a whole wife and three kids.’
He’s right. I still hadn’t heard from Paul since the divorce, and since everything about our wedding was so hush-hush, I doubt he even knows where we are.
I was happy to not have to fight him just yet over custody, but I thought he would at least want to see the girls. Nothing, not a peep since the night Monique broke his arm. I’m pretty sure he’s moping and holding out for an apology from me. That’s what he always did. He never took responsibility for anything in his life.
Why did it take me this long to realize these things? I guess it took having the love of a good man to show me that what I had was nothing compared to what I have now. If someone had told me that a man could love kids that weren’t his own, I wouldn’t have believed it. I would’ve said they were crazy.
I didn’t have stepparents, so I know next to nothing about that dynamic, but I know love and respect when I see it. One of the only reasons that I would’ve forgiven Paul was so that my girls didn’t have a broken home. I have a wonderful relationship with my father and wanted the same for them.