Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
“Did you know Omma made u—me justify every single item on my birthday and Christmas lists? Every single club or camp I wanted to join?” I burst out. “Everything that wasn’t food, clothes, or academics had to be defended and justified. Why do you need a kid’s salon set? Are you planning on being a hairdresser? If you’re not going to be a hairdresser, why do you want to play around with fake hair when you should be studying to achieve your true goals?”
I huffed a frustrated groan like I did all those times before. “Just don’t do that to her, okay? Don’t make her beg to have fun, or be a kid. Tell her she’s got forty thousand dollars’ worth of silliness to take advantage of in the next twelve years, so don’t use that money wisely.”
“We’re not going to tell her that,” Micah deadpanned, his lips quirked up into something resembling a smile. “But what we’re also not going to do, and you can trust this, is raise Lily the way your mother raised you. She’s going to be much happier than you were, Sue.” His gaze pinned me through. “Because we’ve seen the result of what happens if she’s not.”
I flinched, jerking back like he hit me. Micah meant that comment to hit Sue, but it struck me just as squarely. I grew up in the same house with the same parents, and I was a failure.
I was what you got when a family like mine chewed you up and spat you out.
“But,” Micah continued, tipping my chin up. “Why are you talking like this? Like you’re never going to see her again? Is that what you want?” he asked. “To walk out the door and out of her life, and never come bac—”
“No,” I barked, blurting it out before sense could stop me. “Of course, I don’t want that. I want to see her as often and as much as you’ll let me. I love her.”
The words were out of my mouth, and I knew they were true. Frankly, I was always one of those people who made silly faces at babies in the grocery store, and volunteered at children’s homes during the holidays just to see their little faces light up when they opened their presents. I loved every kid and baby I came across, but Lily was special from the moment I laid eyes on her.
This was the baby with my hair, my face, my unique eyes, and my last name. The one I’d been waiting twenty-eight years to meet. The one I so desperately wanted to have one day. And I had already decided at our very first meeting that I’d be the best auntie this girl ever had—it wouldn’t even matter that I was her only one.
“I want to see her after everything is said and done,” I told them in a calmer tone. “But I understand that you three need to trust me with her first.”
Rhodes sighed, scrubbing his face. “Sue, come on, we’re not going to keep her—”
“You’re right,” Alex broke in, clamping a hand on Rhodes’s shoulder. “You do need to earn our trust before there’s any thought of you having further contact with Lily after you leave. You’ve treated our daughter like a nuisance since the first bout of morning sickness, and nothing’s changed since. You’ve almost got her believing that it’s normal, or even right, for a child to beg and plead for her mother’s attention.
“You’re done fucking with her, Sue, and you’re done fucking with us. You want trust, earn it,” he gritted. “And you start by putting everything you just said into writing. No divorce, no child support, no alimony, and no staying here past the funeral. Write it, sign it, and make eight copies for all of us, and our lawyers.
“Do it today, or we’ve got nothing more to talk about.”
I tipped my head. “I can do this today.” Pulling out Sue’s phone, I showed them the screen, and the recorder app. “Everything we said and all of my conditions, loud and clear for the lawyers to hear. I’ll send you guys a copy now.
“I want this to work,” I said. “I want us to live peacefully in this house until the end, and I want that for my mother. Omma was cold, strict, and unforgiving. She cared too much what outsiders thought and concerned herself more with looking like the perfect family than actually being one, but she was the mother I needed when it counted. So I’ll be here for her... when it counts.”
Micah, Rhodes, and Alex didn’t seem to know what to say to that, so they didn’t reply.
“I told work that Lily’s sick and I won’t be back,” Micah said as all three of them turned their back on me. “I’ve got her from here. You can go back to whatever you were doing, Sue.”