Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
The animatronic voice sounded again.
“You’ll still come visit?”
It was Audric’s chance to flinch.
“As much as I can…” He trailed off and said, “Stand it,” underneath his breath.
He probably couldn’t stand it all that much if I had to take a guess.
I wouldn’t be able to, either.
I’m sure that he looked at her and saw her when she’d first done it.
I’m sure that Audric’s father felt the same.
Audric’s mother got to typing again and said, “Is this your soon-to-be wife?”
Before Audric could answer, I blurted, “Yes. We’re getting married in the fall. Neither one of us is that well off, so we’re going to have to go to a courthouse to get married.”
Sorry we’re not ever going to invite you.
The rest of the visit was about as depressing as the beginning.
Audric didn’t have much to say.
I stayed silent other than my outburst about us getting married.
And Audric’s mom took so long to type and ask questions that the conversation was stilted at best.
Needless to say, after we left thirty minutes after we arrived, Audric was in a terrible mood.
“Let’s go see your dad,” I suggested. “Tell him not to fight it.”
Audric looked at me. “You think he would?”
He actually sounded worried.
“I think that he’s a man, and he feels responsible, and we’re going to have to set him straight so that he doesn’t fight it.” I paused. “Are you in danger of losing the house on North Shore?”
“If he doesn’t go along with this, it’s a distinct possibility,” he admitted. “We were close when Laney offered to get married to me and share her inheritance.”
I remembered that day vividly.
“You know, I was probably four hundred thousand dollars in debt, too,” I murmured. “She saved both of us.”
Despite her selfish actions with Gunner, Laney really was a good person.
She worked hard, volunteered, and donated a lot of her money to charity.
She was like a bottle of sunshine that never ran empty.
Was it horrible of me to be happy that she was gone, though?
If she wasn’t gone, I wouldn’t be pressed up against a man as we drove to a fire station in the middle of Dallas.
When we pulled up, a few men looked over from a distance.
It wasn’t until Audric caught my hand and held onto it like a lifeline that I realized that I recognized a few of the men.
Posy Hicks, one of Audric’s fellow Truth Tellers, was the first one to catch my eye.
He was wearing the regulation blue uniform. Navy blue shirt that said ‘DFD’ on it, short for Dallas Fire Department. And the navy blue tactical pants that had a ton of pockets for all kinds of things. They finished off the outfit with black tactical boots that laced up past the ankle.
Audric’s dad, however, was sitting right next to Posy.
Audric’s dad, Carter Ingram, had aged like a fine wine.
If Audric looked anything like his father in thirty years, he would be drop-dead gorgeous.
Audric looked nothing like his mother, and everything like his dad.
“Well if it isn’t Little Miss Creole Williams.” Carter gave me a beaming smile. “Holding hands with my boy.”
I glanced at said boy and blurted, “I just lied to your wife and told her that I was marrying your son. If she asks, you have to play along.”
Carter’s eyebrows rose. “You went to see Ellis?”
Audric audibly swallowed before he took over the conversation. “We came over here to tell you not to fight her when she files for divorce.”
Carter’s face went blank. “What do you mean?”
Posy shifted on his feet, his arms crossing over his chest, and I could tell he was torn between leaving and staying where he was.
Hell, I was in the same boat.
If Audric didn’t have such a tight grip on my hand, I might have slipped away already.
As it was, I couldn’t feel my hand.
Audric explained everything, ending with, “And I know you’d let it go, but I don’t want to. The North Shore house is special, and I will die before I let it go.”
Carter’s shoulders slumped. “Fuck.”
Audric finally let my hand go, and blood instantly rushed back into my fingers.
I stepped away and felt more than saw Posy follow me.
“What was that all about?” he asked.
I looked over at Posy and spilled all.
“Whoa,” he breathed. “I knew that there was some issue there with Laney and Audric. He’d told me a lot of it. But I hadn’t realized all that. He never talks about it.”
“It’s a sticky situation,” I said. “How do you tell anyone that your wife isn’t your actual wife, and the only reason that you’re with her is because your mother attempted suicide and failed?”
He studied me for a few seconds before he said, “You would’ve married her and shared like he did?”
“In a heartbeat,” I admitted. “I was going to. Really I was, but we all knew that the Combs would fight this tooth and nail. They would’ve never let me win, and I had a lot going on. With my son and my mom both sick…I couldn’t have handled that. I would’ve folded like a house of cards. Audric was really the only answer.”