Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
“Go on, honey. I’ll be right behind you.”
“I… Can you just come on now?” I said it before I thought, then stiffened. “I mean… Never mind. I got this.” I put my shoulders back and my head up. I could absolutely do this. I was going with a woman to meet another woman. I turned back to Angel. “There won’t be any men, will there?”
“Pops is Mama’s companion. He helps her sometimes, but if you don’t want him there, he won’t be.”
All at once, sweat erupted over my body, and I started to tremble. A strange man. I tried to say something, to insist it was fine, but I couldn’t. The words wouldn’t come. I couldn’t breathe.
“Styx,” I whispered. My legs gave out, and I would have fallen on my ass, but strong arms caught me, pulling me against a hard, strong body.
“I got you, honey. I got you.”
“I-I c-can’t…” I sucked in air, trying to catch my breath.
“You gotta take slow, deep breaths, baby. You’re hyperventilating.” Styx scooped me up in his arms. I wrapped mine around his neck and held on for dear life, burying my face in his wide chest.
Then the tears came. And came.
I have no idea what happened next. All I knew was the whole night hit me. Hard. All at once.
There was a small prick to my upper arm that made me yelp. It didn’t really hurt so much as it startled me.
“There,” a slightly rough but feminine voice said softly. “Give the medicine time to work, and she’ll calm down.”
“I’d bet my last dollar she’s gonna be pissed as hell when she realized what happened,” Styx murmured softly above me. I was still wrapped tightly in his arms, clinging to him.
“Then it’s your job to make sure she understands it’s perfectly natural. Anyone can tell by looking at her she’s been through a lot. You find who did this to her, and you make the son of a bitch pay. You hear me, young man?”
“I hear you, Mama. It will be my most sincere pleasure.” He spoke low, but I could hear the intent in his voice even through my pain. He had every intention of bringing me justice. Which just made me cry again. Fuck. I needed to get a grip on myself.
“Crying never helped anything,” I mentally told myself. It was something I often told myself when things got hard. I learned early on I was never going to be my poppy’s favorite. I was his second wife’s first child. The one she hadn’t wanted because I “disfigured” her, as she called it. She’d been twenty when I was born, and very slight of body. She’d gained fifty pounds while pregnant with me and, apparently, my father never let her forget it. Instead of either fixing the problem or just leaving the bastard, she’d blamed me.
After that, she’d had another child before trying to skip town with a sizable bank account without my father’s permission. He’d shut that down. Hard. And we never saw my mother again. His third and current wife had tried to make it hard on all of us. I was the only one who fought back. My sister meekly stayed in the shadows, doing little things for her to get in her good graces. Once she’d made herself indispensable to our new stepmother, she’d started taking her shots at me. Especially since Poppy’s new wife had two more kids and there was real competition to be Poppy’s favorite.
While his wife might technically get half his wealth when he died, he could -- and did -- make his will to suit his moods. The goal was to always be at the top. I was never going to be there and had realized early on I had no desire to be. Not if it meant groveling and submitting to his cruel whims. I’d watched more than one of my sisters be given to a business associate in payment of services or for one favorable deal or another. I never wanted that to be me. So I fought. Got physically hurt more than once. And crying hadn’t helped any of it.
“No,” the elderly female voice agreed. “But it can help you feel better. Especially when you have a big, strong male in your corner letting you get it all out.”
I looked up. My one good eye was now puffy and probably red. The other one was nearly swollen shut from the beating I’d taken. “Did I say that out loud?”
She smiled kindly at me. “I won’t tell if you won’t.” I decided right then that I really liked this woman. “Now. We haven’t been formally introduced, but I’m Mama. I presume you’re Jolene?” When I nodded, she continued. “If you let me look you over and maybe take a few X-rays, you can go rest.”