Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Although smitten JR cares enough about me to put my safety before his own, I’m still lost as to how his cabin connects with his arrest. A conviction won’t see him stripped of assets, so why did Cedric volunteer to help put him away?
When I express my worries to Isaac, Regan doubles them. “Because you can’t benefit from someone’s death you caused.” After showing me a copy of the article JR presented to me days ago, she adds, “Cecil was awarded the cabin almost two decades ago when his partner was killed in a traffic accident.”
“Rosie,” I mutter, suddenly knowledgeable as to why JR believed my careen over a cliff wasn’t an accident.
Regan nods. “The cabin wasn’t the only thing Cecil inherited, but it was by far the most valuable.” She pauses to build suspense. “Her children were not happy.”
“Roderick.”
She half shrugs half nods. “Roderick was Rosie’s grandson, and although he was originally set to receive a sizable inheritance, some shady dealings saw him left with hardly anything. Believing Roderick’s love of the cabin wasn’t from a monetary standpoint, Rosie doctored her will to state that in the event she and Cecil died at the same time, Roderick would become the owner of the cabin. He, not understanding the law, assumed that meant it would still become his once Cecil also passed. But—”
“Cecil had other plans,” I interrupt, smiling.
Regan smiles along with me. “Originally, the land and everything on it was left to C—” She stops, swallows, then starts again, “JR.” I smile, grateful for her willingness to come to bat for a man she doesn’t know. “But after meeting a pocket rocket doctor whom he immediately recognized from the photos he was shown the prior four years, he had a last-minute change of heart.”
“The clergy he requested,” I mutter under my breath as tears prick my eyes.
The morning Cecil was brought in, I was walking out from a double shift. I could have kept walking. There were plenty of doctors rostered who could have handled a knock to the head with their eyes closed, but something stopped me. I’ve told myself time and time again that it was the pain in Cecil’s kind eyes, but only now am I wondering if it was something else. I only caught the quickest glimpse of the man who carried Cecil into the ER before he was crash tackled by local law enforcement officers, but now that I’m thinking back, his long hair and blue eyes registered as familiar.
“When Alex raided the cabin, he found this under the floorboards.” Regan hands me a secondary newspaper article. It isn’t about Rosie’s accident. It is an article a federal agent ensured went viral to the world more than Ophelia’s death. It was about me, and my so-called heroism when I ‘died’ trying to free Ophelia from the wreckage.
My annoyance about Agent Macy Machini jumping the gun is heard in my tone when I disclose, “I thought running was the solution.” I shift on my feet to face Isaac. “I realized it wasn’t when our lives collided again. That’s why I took your sperm.”
To cut a long story short, Isaac was Ophelia Petretti’s boyfriend. With him heartbroken and confident he would never move on from her death, he booked in to have a vasectomy in a country town far from his stomping ground. I was his surgeon.
I tried to talk him out of it. I even hooked him up with a therapist known for persuading her patients to see things from another perspective, but with Isaac adamant sterilization was what he wanted, I did the procedure as ordered. I just glossed over the fact patients don’t usually give a sperm sample until after the procedure is done, stored his wrigglers at an IVF clinic with falsified papers, then confessed to my crime almost six years later.
I anticipated for Isaac to strip me of my medical license, or at the very least, remove me from my position at Ravenshoe Private. He did neither of those things. He handled it better than expected, and although I don’t think he’ll ever fully trust me again, he will forever support me because, without me, he wouldn’t have the family he adores more than life itself.
I stop reminiscing when a thought pops into my head. “Although this a compelling weave of deception and lies, something doesn’t add up. Even if JR is convicted, the land won’t be returned to Roderick and his family. JR wasn’t awarded it for committing a crime, so they have no basis to overturn Cecil’s last will and testament.”
“That’s true,” Regan agrees. “But… if the jury believes Roderick’s family’s claims that Cecil committed suicide after confessing to Roderick that he had killed Rosie’s husband, the flow-on effect could see JR stripped of his inheritance. No matter how long the chain, if one link comes undone, the entire chain is ruined.”