Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
I was there to go through with it. I was there to deal with “the situation.”
And I realized I couldn’t do it.
This baby wasn’t a “situation” to me. It was a baby. My baby.
I left the clinic that day, still pregnant. And because the medical staff are bound by patient privacy laws, they could not discuss my case with anyone but me.
I let the driver take me back home. And when your mother called me the next day to check up on me, I told her everything went fine with the procedure.
The next day, an envelope was delivered to me, and it contained the hush money that had been promised.
I used that money to move out of the city. And eight months later, I had a boy. A beautiful, healthy baby boy I named William.
It’s funny how when a child comes into your life, your perspective on everything changes.
I don’t regret my child, but I regret what I did to you.
I regret that I never once told you the truth.
I am so incredibly sorry. I don’t expect you to forgive me. I don’t even know if you should. I don’t know that I deserve any more kindness from you.
But I do know that you deserve the truth. You deserve to know who you are marrying. You deserve to know what your mother was a part of.
You deserve to have a choice.
I hope the truth will set you free. And I hope what you do with it will change more lives than just yours.
I’ll forever be sorry.
Alexis
“I’m not getting it, Nore.” Josie looks up at me, the letter still in her hand. “What is it you’re seeing other than our snake of a mother and your ex-fiancé forced a young girl into an impossible situation—which is bad enough, by the way?”
“The part about what I do with the truth changing more lives than just mine,” I say with a frown. “What do you… Do you think that means there were other girls they did this to?”
Josie’s face melts in consolation.
“Oh my God.” I cover my hand with my mouth. “You do. You think this wasn’t the first. You think it was just the first time someone was brave enough to speak up…?’
“Norah, I don’t know much about Thomas besides him being an abusive asshole, but I know our mom. And I wouldn’t put anything past her.”
For as long as I can remember, Josie has hated our mother. I truly can’t remember a time when she had something nice to say about her.
“Why, Josie? What did she do when we were kids that makes you so sure? You were always so sure.”
“Norah…”
“What? Just say it.”
“Mom killed Jezzy, Norah. She left her in the tub when she was too little, and she drowned.”
Everything inside me comes crashing down, and my ears feel like they’re filled with the ocean. “No.”
“You were too young. I knew you probably didn’t realize, and the investigation never proved it, but I knew. I saw the aftermath. I saw…” Her voice chokes, and one tear slips down her cheek. She swipes it away with an angry hand. “Eleanor knows what she did. And Norah, she doesn’t care. Because she never ever cares about anything but herself.”
Tears burst the dam in my eyes and start streaming down my face, unchecked. Josie jumps up from the couch and throws her arms around me, pulling me into a hug.
“I’m sorry, Norah.” She hugs me tighter. “I’m so sorry because I know how hard this must be to hear. But Eleanor Ellis is a vapid narcissist capable of the worst kind of behavior in every situation if she’s desperate enough,” she whispers directly into my hair. “Even when the victims are her daughters.”
We stay like that for a long moment, my mind reeling with thoughts of Summer and Jezzy and Alexis. The past twenty-four hours are a heavy weight on my shoulders. And coming home to this, to Josie reading that letter, has only awakened the nagging ache I’ve had since I walked out on my wedding day.
“So, what am I supposed to do now?” I whisper. “I don’t think I can ignore this awful feeling that there’s more to this whole thing any longer. That it’s possible there’re more women who have been hurt by Thomas.” By our mother.
“You move on. We plan. We investigate. And eventually, hopefully, we put Eleanor Ellis and your asshole ex in the kind of place where none of us will hear from them again.”
I step back out of her embrace incredulously. “Are you suggesting we murder them?”
“Hey, if the shoe fits!”
“Josie! Maybe I should’ve said, but I’m morally opposed to that particular sin.”
My ridiculous sister laughs, the maniac. “All right, then. We’ll come up with another plan. One that sets you, me, and whoever else needs to be, free from our mother and your asshole ex.”