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)
Dead.
Dead.
What had I done to deserve this?
What had Audric?
Who had we pissed off in a past life?
“Fuck.”
“You can go visit your daughter in the neonatal intensive care unit.”
The words sent a crack through my soul.
Fuck.
His daughter.
The little girl that Laney had been carrying wasn’t his anything.
Laney had gone and slept with another man, getting pregnant through a one-night stand.
Audric hadn’t even flinched when she’d told him.
I had.
Their marriage may be a sham, but that didn’t change the fact that she had cheated on him. That she’d gotten pregnant out of wedlock with a man she had no intentions of staying with.
That man had no clue that he’d fathered a child.
Hell, I didn’t even think that man knew who he’d slept with. If he had, he certainly wouldn’t have slept with Laney.
Laney was no innocent in any of this.
But what would knowing it now matter?
Should I tell him who the baby’s father actually was?
Or should I leave it alone?
But when the baby’s father came into the room looking wrecked for his fellow Truth Teller, I knew that nothing good could come from any of this.
This little secret of Laney’s would go to the grave with me.
I couldn’t tell him.
Not yet, anyway. Maybe not ever.
Unless there was a need, I would take the secret that Laney slept with Paden Nobleman to my grave.
“Fuck, man,” Cakes, a.k.a. Paden, said as he drew his friend into his arms. “Detroit, are you okay?”
“Don’t call me Detroit.” Audric swallowed. “I never want to hear that name again.”
Five
Really hope the next man destroys my cervix instead of destroying my life.
—Overheard Conversations
AUDRIC
Present Day
I stared at the DNA test in my hand and knew that this was about to be the biggest shitshow of epic proportions.
I wasn’t sure how they knew to make me take the DNA test, but now that I was staring at the results, I knew that I couldn’t get away with the lie for much longer.
“You ready, man?” Cakes slapped me on the shoulder. “Time to get our boy married.”
Our “boy” wasn’t much of a boy.
Our “boy” was actually a grown-ass man, but he was our club president.
We were taking him to Hawaii to get married, and we’d all be staying at my place.
A place that Laney had saved like she said she would.
A place that had become my refuge any time that I needed a break.
It was the one place that didn’t seem tainted by the horrors of my life.
My phone rang in my pocket, and I pulled it out and answered it while everyone else headed onto the plane.
“Hey, Dad,” I said.
“Your girl’s fussy tonight,” he said.
I winced.
She was fussy every night.
I loved the kid, but fuck, she was a lot of work.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” I apologized.
Dad knew that Lottie wasn’t mine.
He’d always known, because I didn’t keep secrets from the man.
He didn’t keep any from me, either.
“It’s okay, I’m happy as hell to do it,” he murmured. “Just wanted to give you a quick update.”
“Thanks, Dad. We’re boarding the plane now. Call me if you have any issues with Lottie.”
“Will do, kid,” he said.
“Love you.”
“Back at you.” He sounded happy.
He probably was.
Hanging out with Lottie was the highlight of his life at this point.
I hung up and pulled my boarding pass up just in time for my turn.
Boarding the plane behind Webber and his soon-to-be wife, I wondered if she’d be on the flight.
I was rewarded with her beautiful, beaming smile for all of two seconds before it slid off her face the moment she saw me.
Her eyes lit with an inner fire that I only ever saw when she was looking at me.
I don’t know how, but over the last two years since Laney’s death, she’d grown on me like a fungus.
No longer did the sight of her set all my irritation to igniting.
Somehow, someway, she’d become a person that I enjoyed seeing.
I was sure the feeling wasn’t mutual, but still.
“Well, hello, Flight Attendant Creole,” I said, sickly-sweet.
Her irritation made me want to laugh.
I managed to hold in the laughter, though.
“Hi.” She narrowed her eyes.
Her gaze went behind me, and her face went utterly blank.
I looked behind me to see Cakes standing there and wondered what the hell that was about.
To the best of my knowledge, I didn’t think the two of them had ever met.
What the hell was that about?
“Hello.” Cakes smiled at Creole.
“Hi.” She tried for a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
Okay, something was definitely weird there.
She could put on an act with the best of them.
Her prickly personality was always reserved for only me.
So what the hell was that about?
Determined to figure it out, I passed her and took my seat in first class.
Laney’s money had done one thing.
I could now afford to do just about anything short of buying a country.
Which was why the Combs had been fighting the will for the last two years.