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)
“Rhodes...” I clapped a hand over my mouth, a horror I couldn’t name poisoning me. “How could you keep this from me!?”
“I had no intention to,” he cried. “I went to tell you immediately so we could beat his ass together, but then—then—then you screamed! Everyone came running and we discovered Omma was killed.
“After that, I didn’t know how to tell you or the police what I found without admitting I was in the room right next door with a huge fucking motive when the murder happened. Those lazy bastards would’ve driven off with me in the backseat next to your friend,” he said. “That’s why I made up that shit about Reynard being in the garden below Omma’s window. I wanted to give you a reason to doubt him. To dig into that creep and find out what he was hiding.
“I know he didn’t kill her—because he was an hour away and you don’t kill the golden goose—but he was the reason your mother was so weak and out of it she didn’t have a prayer of defending herself when that monster stole into her room. And he deserves to pay for it.”
“You’re fucking right he does!” I almost ripped the dial free turning off the stove. Storming out of the kitchen, Rhodes’s shouts for me to stop were nothing but buzzing in my ears.
That cheating, fraudulent bitch realized he walked into a scam-rich environment, and he took full advantage. Who questions it when a doctor or nurse says a patient needs a certain treatment? Who wants to be the heartless shitbag who denies a dying woman said treatment? The lawyer approved every charge Reynard sent his way, trying to do right by my mother, and that bastard took advantage of the fact that no one knew his treatments were bogus or nonexistent. And if that wasn’t enough...
Bile surged up my throat, threatening to spew on the staircase.
Reynard was torturing her. Denying the basic, humane care his oath demanded, just so she never got the idea that she didn’t need his services. Just so that we never decided that we didn’t need his help, and could care for her ourselves.
“It’s disgusting!” I screamed, tearing down the hall to the east wing. “How could anyone be so evil? You’re no better than the monster who killed her!”
“Sue, I agree with you completely, but don’t confront this guy.” Rhodes chased after me. He grabbed my hand but didn’t try to slow me down. I might’ve attacked him if he did. “Let’s call the police. We have the invoices proving fraud. They’ll handle him.”
I shook free, practically sprinting to get ahead of him. “Yeah, they’ll handle him—after I’m done!”
“Sue!”
I charged up to Reynard’s door and pounded on the wood, shrieking through the barrier like a madwoman. “Open up! Reynard, get the fuck out here!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Open the door!” I banged on the door. “I know what you did to my mother, you thieving bastard! Get out and face me like the sniveling worm you are, bitch! Take this beating like a man!”
“That’s not much of an incentive to open the door,” came a dry voice.
My glare would’ve peeled his head like a grape if I was given the superpowers I asked Santa for as a child. “Break it down,” I ordered Rhodes. “Break it down, and drag him out of there! We will be kicking his ass together after all!”
“I will not be doing that, and we will not be doing that.” Rhodes fished his phone out of his pocket. “I’m calling the police. We’ll give them the proof; they’ll take it from there.”
I wasn’t given much choice on the matter. Reynard was a grown man who expected privacy, so he had his own lock installed in the door that could only be opened with his key. Said door was a thick, heavy oak, so the chances of me and my chicken legs kicking it in was nil.
I paced the whole time I waited for the cops to arrive—the anger building in my chest. Anger I didn’t know where to place. As much as I wanted to crack Reynard’s skull for what he did to Omma, wasn’t I partially to blame for asking no questions? For not even bothering to check the invoices, or Omma’s pill caddy to see what was in those bottles?
I blindly trusted that complete stranger too, and my mother paid the price.
“Uh, hey, guys?” Micah rounded the corner, leading Officer Davis and his partner behind him. “Did you order a couple of cops? Because the Lilybug and I were hoping for Chinese?”
“Order some Chinese, please, Micah, this is going to take a while—because the evil, twisted, bitch baby won’t come out!” I shouted, kicking the door. “The police are here, you sick fuck, and we’re all going to swear we saw nothing when they beat you with their nightsticks!”