Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 63496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“All of that should have been yours, Daphne. Maybe you should think about changing.”
“Changing?” I parrot like a fool, not grasping what she’s talking about. “Why would I change?”
“Because, honey. Dane is a man with a lot of money and power. They want a certain kind of wife. I think that was a lot of the issues in your marriage. When Cammie was born you concentrated all your efforts on motherhood. Dane felt slighted and began to look elsewhere to have his needs met. It sucks, but it is up to the woman to keep the fire alive in a relationship. That’s the only reason someone like Serena had a chance of taking Dane from you.”
I look at her for a moment completely dumbstruck. When had she changed so much? The mother I remember was cold at times, but she was never like this. I shake my head. “I really don’t want to talk about this right now, Mom,” I huff.
“Baby,” she says, clearly placating me, as she puts her hand on my shoulder. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m just saying that I’ve learned a lot over the years. You can still have Dane. All you have to do is remind him of the woman you are—not the mother. Why do you think I make sure there’s no gray in my hair? Or that I keep my figure so that I can still fit in the same size jeans I wore before you were born? How about the fact that I keep my face and body looking youthful? I’m not even going to tell you about how much I spend monthly on lingerie and clothes to keep the excitement going between me and Nathan. I can help you get your husband back, Daphne. You can have your family back intact.”
“Do you know what all that sounds like to me, Mom? Exhausting. If you can’t be yourself around Nathan, what in the world do you get out of that relationship?”
“Nathan and I are very happy together, Daphne. I’m just trying to make you see that you have to work for things sometimes.”
“Are you still going to be happy when you are twenty years older and no matter what you do, those wrinkles stay? The skin sags? What then, Mom?”
“Daphne Ann!” she snaps, letting me know that I’ve broken through at least a little of her shell.
“I really don’t want to discuss this with you. You live your life the way you want. That’s your choice. This is mine. I need you to understand that. I want a man who sees me the way I am and embraces that. No matter what, Cammie will always come first. I don’t want a man who doesn’t respect that—especially if that man is her own father. I love you, Mom. I just want you to be happy. I’ll only say that you seemed much happier before Nathan, and I miss that woman.”
“Now. Let’s see what Cammie is building with Dad and Eli. I think, with the day she’s had, she deserves a party where the complete focus is on her and making her happy,” I explain and then I walk away to join my daughter.
Mom follows a few minutes later. She seems subdued, but I also notice that she’s nicer, less bitchy and even manages to laugh at one of my dad’s jokes—along with the rest of us. It’s not much, but it feels like a good omen for the rest of the day and that’s all that matters.
Chapter 15
Sabre
I’ve fucked up so much. I’m not sure I realized it was possible to feel as lost as I do. I’ve been so busy drowning my sorrows in a bottle, that I didn’t even know my daughter was busy going through hell. I had lost touch with my beautiful granddaughter and have just been letting the world pass me by. I need to fix that. Today is the first day in a very fucking long time that I haven’t had a drink. I’m starting to feel that itch, but I tamp it down. I need to be present so that I can help Daphne. I once viewed her as a betrayal from the two people I loved most in this world. Now, I know that I was fucking wrong. Daphne is the only person that truly matters from my past. I once loved Annie, but even before Latch died, there were cracks in our relationship. She had this hunger to be the center of everything. She got mad if I put the club first. She got mad if Latch and I wanted to be alone together. She got mad if we went away on club business together. There were hundreds of things that seemed to piss her off—to the point that even though I did my best to overlook them, to not think about it and pretend everything was fine… it wasn’t. When I almost died while helping my president and the club, I reworked my priorities. Annie was the love of my life. She grew up in some twisted version of happiness. I needed to make allowances for that. Latch was a man that I loved as much as, if not more than, Annie. A lot of people didn’t get that type of relationship, but it was true. Latch and I may not have been attracted to one another sexually, but we loved each other deeply. It satisfied me completely being with him. We would share a woman when we wanted sex, but that’s all it was. We had each other for everything else. Hell, it was the same for him. We tried once to kiss, to touch, to see if we could bring one another pleasure. It didn’t happen for either of us. Hell, we couldn’t even get hard. That’s actually how we discovered that sharing a woman brought us more pleasure than we’d ever known in bed.