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)
Pete just shrugs. “Ben, step back, would you?”
I sigh and step back a foot or two, just as my crowd of protectors comes barreling into the bullpen.
Breezy is first in line, her face a harsh mask of New York Fuck You.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“Thomas…Mom?” Norah cries as soon as she sees them. “This is your doing?”
Clay comes to my side. “You okay, man?”
I nod. “Just want to get home.”
Clay slaps me on the shoulder and nods. “I know.”
“You’ve truly lost your mind, Eleanor,” Josie spits unchecked. “Siding with an abuser?”
Eleanor snorts. “Thomas is hardly an abuser, Josie. Be serious.”
“I am serious,” Josie snaps back. “He put his hands on Norah and left a mark. Nearly dragged her out of my shop and would have if Bennett here hadn’t stopped him. He’s a piece of shit, and everyone here knows it.”
“Folks, folks,” Pete tries to interject, but the train has already left the station.
“He’s a lot more than that,” Norah cuts in, pulling a manila envelope from under her arm. Her voice is shaky and nervous, and I hate that I’m the reason for it. “I have evidence here of blackmail and coercion and a pretty good feeling that there have been multiple girls the two of you have forced into abortions and other things.”
Thomas’s voice is seething. “Where the hell did you get that?”
Norah shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter where I got it. What matters is that I have it. And I’m going to pursue it to the fullest extent of the law, even if that means a long, drawn-out trial against you.”
Josie wraps an arm around Norah’s shoulders in comfort. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is the very last thing Norah wants to do.
As the commotion picks up, Jessica and her lawyer come out of the sheriff’s office, and as soon as Breezy spots her, her eyes go round. “What the hell is she doing here?”
“I’m here for my daughter.”
Josie and Clay gasp. Norah turns tearful eyes to me.
Breezy, though, she’s not having any of it. “Don’t give me that bullshit, Jessica Folger. That girl is not your daughter. Your role was giving birth, and that was the extent of it.”
“Because he paid me to leave!” she shouts.
“He paid you a generous sum of money, yes, but you didn’t need any convincing to leave, Jess. You and I both know you didn’t want anything to do with that baby.”
“She’s saying I’m not the biological father,” I choke out somehow, causing another round of gasps that suck almost all the air out of the station.
Breezy, though, she doesn’t even blink. “Is that right? Well, I guess it’s a good thing we did a DNA test before Bennett ever left the state with her, then.”
“You have DNA?” the lawyer bumbles, an instant fool.
“Yes,” my sister declares. “We have DNA, a signed affidavit swearing the money was not a bribe, and a signed transfer of full rights to Bennett for Summer. I don’t know what you think you have, but you don’t have jack shit.”
“You signed an affidavit?” the lawyer questions Jessica, his eyes widening in incredulity.
“I signed a lot of things, but I was coerced!” Jessica wails at the top of her lungs.
“Exactly!” Thomas shouts, and Breezy turns on him like a mama bear.
“You stay out of this!”
I chuckle without humor. “He’s having a hard time staying out of it because he’s the one who convinced Jess to come. Right?”
Thomas and Jess are both silent for a long moment, and Eleanor sees fit to fill it. “This is preposterous. Sheriff! This is all lies, every bit of it!”
Josie guffaws. “Don’t act like you’re innocent, mother. You’ve had your hand in all of it.”
“Listen, folks, from what I’m hearing, Bennett is free to go,” Sheriff Pete interjects, coming toward me to take the cuffs off. “If there’s anything else to be settled, I suggest you file suit with the appropriate court.”
“This is bullshit,” Jessica cries, pointing at Thomas. “You said I could get more money! That’s the whole damn reason I even came!”
Her lawyer, mind you, is already packing up his briefcase.
I shake my head at her antics and run my tongue against my teeth as Sheriff Peeler frees me. I rub at my sore wrists lightly. The only thing that keeps me from regretting ever knowing Jessica is the daughter I got out of it.
“The money’s gone, Jess,” I say as simply as I can manage. “All that’s left is the daughter you never wanted. The daughter I would give anything to keep. So, I suggest you go back to wherever you’ve been because the only place you’re going in the company of this guy is prison.”
The entire time she’s been here, not once has she asked to see Summer. Not one single fucking time. She has no idea what her daughter has been through. She has no idea that Summer’s life is hanging by a thread. She doesn’t know and she doesn’t care, and the tragedy of that scenario makes me thankful my daughter has lived a life without this woman.