Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
I could guess.
“And you know he’s so respectful of women, we all are, and he didn’t know how to get her off him and not hurt her, and when you move the collar of his shirt, she scraped the side of his neck with her nails, and she ripped, like, two or three buttons off his shirt.”
And because he had no idea what to do, didn’t want to make a scene, he came and sat down with me and Hannah so he could gather his thoughts. Kola internalized everything and was sitting there, I knew, running through the entire scene in his head, over and over, wondering what he’d done wrong and what he could have done differently. He would have left and not told anyone, but Hannah was not the kind of person who let things go, and especially not when it came to her brother. He drove her insane, but she loved him fiercely, as she did the rest of us. She was protective and possessive, and when I’d reminded Jake of that, he’d smiled at me and said he knew. He liked her just the way she was.
“Your married friend Mrs. Oliver attacked my son in your guest bathroom, Jen,” I told my sister-in-law. “And while they’re both adults, please don’t ever invite us again if she’s going to be here. I don’t want to ever see her again.”
“I promised to make Kola his favorite chewy brownies when we get home,” Hannah informed me, taking a deep breath. “And we still have that epic cherry pie you made from the other night, so I’m not bringing home any dessert, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed as she walked forward, stepping into my space and wrapping her arms around me. I hugged her tight, feeling her shiver in my arms.
“Oh, Hannah,” Jen said softly, “sweetie, I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, but let’s face it,” she said, sniffling, easing back, wiping her tears from her cheeks as she looked at her aunt, “this would be a huge deal if Mr. Oliver had attacked me in the bathroom. I mean, my father would have put him in jail, after, of course, he got out of the hospital.”
“I…yes. Agreed.”
“But because it’s Mrs. Oliver groping Kola, putting her hands all over him, Dad can’t do anything but yell at her, and neither can Pa, so it falls to me to set her straight…and you.”
Jen sighed deeply. “Honey, she needs help, and I think she’s about to get a divorce, and we have to show compassion and––”
Hannah gasped suddenly, and her mouth fell open as her eyes glinted dangerously.
“Hannah?” Jen murmured, unsure.
“I’m telling Nana,” she announced, turning her head slowly to me.
“No,” Jen gasped. “No, no, no.”
“What would Kola want?” I asked my daughter before she could sprint over to her grandmother’s side.
She thought a moment, weighing her brother’s wants against her desire for revenge and spectacle. “Fine. But if I ever see her again, I will tell Nana in a heartbeat, and we all know she’ll claw that woman’s eyes out.”
“No question,” I chimed in.
“I’m her favorite. She would never doubt me for a second.” Hannah was confident, and she had every right to be. There was no one in the family who didn’t know that she was Regina’s golden child. She loved them all, all her grandchildren, but Hannah was the one she had the most in common with, the one she shopped with, haunted vintage stores with, combed through photos with, and who was privy to secrets the rest of us could only guess at. She loved them all, but Hannah was her treasure. “She put marks on his neck, Pa.”
“Yes,” I said, and brushed by my daughter on the way to the house.
“Jory,” Jen pleaded as she walked beside me, “what will this accomplish?”
“You don’t get to accost either of my kids and not meet me,” I explained, taking the stairs in twos, spotting the crying woman at the table with many others, all crowded around her, giving her solace, I was certain, for the scene that her husband had put her through, airing their dirty laundry on Easter Sunday.
“Mrs. Oliver,” I said when I reached them, one of the women standing up in front of me to shield her friend. “If you’d like to speak to me in private, that might be better for you.”
Instantly she was up and dashing to the railing in the opposite corner.
Moving around the table of her friends, I stepped in close enough so she could hear me, as I had put my mask back on from when I’d taken it off to eat and sit with my kids. “It’s up to you to ensure that we will never be at a function of Jen’s together again.” I clipped the words, meeting her watery gaze. “If I see you again, I’ll get a restraining order. Is that understood?”