Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 60573 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 303(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60573 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 303(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
“I’m about to ask you a question, and I want you to answer me clearly. Did my lawyer get in touch with you?” Gash asked.
“Your lawyer?”
“Yes.”
“No. I wasn’t contacted by any lawyer.”
“I fucking knew it.”
It had been strange to her at the time as well. No lawyer had been in touch with her, and she’d only heard about it on the news as she was coming out of the airport. She didn’t have time to tell her story. There had been a date for the trial, and she’d tried to get in touch with Gash’s lawyer without success, and then it was too late. Jeff grabbed her, tore her world apart, and dumped her. After trying to take her own life, she’d been sent to a psychiatric hospital where she’d spent the next five years. Since getting out she had tried to find Rebecca and Jeff, losing lots of money in her own search to find the people who’d ruined her life. She didn’t have the right resources to find the two people who had ruined her life. Charlotte had to finally stop trying to hunt for ghosts.
Gash rubbed his temple. “I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about this.”
“When you first got sentenced, I was out of the country. I’d gotten a promotion, and I was on my way back. When I got back home, before your trial, I, erm, I got sick, and I couldn’t help you, no matter what.” Charlotte wasn’t about to tell him what happened when she got back. She wasn’t ready to delve into that shit again.
“I get that.”
She shook her head and stood. “If you don’t mind, I want a drink.” She stormed into her kitchen, and as she filled the kettle, she noticed that her hands were shaking. Taking a deep breath, she moved from the kitchen sink, to the counter, and turned on the kettle. She had to keep control over her emotions. The last thing she needed right now was to lose herself again. She’d been doing so well right now.
I can do this.
Can you do this?
The father of your child is sitting at your pathetic excuse for a table.
You didn’t have a child.
They destroyed that.
The very thoughts made her eyes fill with tears, and she tried to wipe them away.
It’s in the past. I can’t change the past.
Breathe in, breathe out.
It’s good to live.
She kept speaking the words her therapist advised her to do. She wasn’t about to waste years of therapy.
“Are you okay?” Gash asked, startling her. He stood right behind her. He gripped her waist, and she tensed up, jerking out of his hold.
“Don’t.”
“I don’t recall you being this jumpy.”
“How do you remember anything about me?” she asked.
“We spent a great deal of time together, Charlotte. Don’t try to pretend that it didn’t mean anything.”
Slamming the cup down on the counter, she spun around to face him. This guy was giving her whiplash, and she was so damn tired of him, and tired of the past invading her present. “How can you say that? How can you say that we spent time together, and yet, you come in here, threatening me?” She shook her head. “I don’t know anything about Rebecca and Jeff. I’ve been on my own for a long time.”
“What happened to you?” he asked.
“What?”
“You’re different. I remember a time when you had an easy smile, and were more than happy to talk with me. Now, you’re treating me like you don’t know me.”
“It has been seven years, Gash. Do you have any idea what happens in seven years? People change. I’m not the same woman you knew, and you’re not the same guy.”
“I am.”
“No. The guy I knew wouldn’t have shoved me up against the wall with his hand wrapped around my neck. Neither of us are the same, and you need to realize that it’s not going to fall back into old times.”
Gash stared into her eyes, and she forced herself to stare right back at him. It was hard for her not to look away, but she wouldn’t back down. He wasn’t the same man, and she didn’t trust him, not one bit.
“Did you and Rebecca have another friend?” he asked.
She frowned. “Huh?”
“I was wondering if you and Rebecca had another friend that visited you while I was here. I seem to recall a woman there, vaguely.”
Charlotte turned back to finish her coffee. “No one else but you, me, Rebecca, and Jeff, oh, and the guy that turned up dead, who was just a boyfriend Rebecca had made sure she’d been seen with. Nothing else.”
He touched her waist once again, leaning in close, invading her space. “Are you sure?”
“I’m more than sure, asshole.” She pushed her butt out, making him take a step back. “There was no other woman, and Rebecca was screwing all of you.” She took a seat back at the table, wrapping her fingers around the cup. “What’s your plan? Are you going to threaten me to death, or do you actually have a plan for us to find the bastard and bitch who affected our lives?”