Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“You son of a bitch!” she yelled at him, and I saw her raise her hand and slap him across the face. “I drink because of you. You make me drink. You and the sorry excuse of a life you promised me.”
“Keep your voice down.”
“You made me keep the kid. I didn’t even want him.” I listened as she continued her tirade. Something she did daily. She was never there when I got home from school, and it was always just Dad and me on the weekends while she went away with “friends.” She was either drunk or passed out, and now it looked like she was drunk and pissed.
I got out of bed and started to walk toward the door. “Don’t you tell me what to do in my house.” She hit him again. I saw my father hold up his hand to block her. “I fucking hate you.” Words that she repeated nightly also.
I watched her walk over to her purse and pull out a gun. I didn’t know who gasped louder, me or my father. But then she tilted her head to the side. “My life would be better without you in it.” That was the last thing she said before she pulled the trigger. I yelled out at the same time that my father grabbed his stomach, and I saw the blood pouring out of him.
“Daddy!” I screamed for him as he fell back, crashing onto the flimsy table in the middle of the living room.
His eyes went from my mother to turn to me, and his last word was, “Hide.” Then his eyes shut forever.
That night changed everything and made me an orphan. I never replay those memories except for once a year when it’s his birthday. It’s my thing to sit out and look up at the sky and tell him what has happened to me in the year. I also got totally trashed each and every single time to block out the memories that came along with it. There weren’t many, but the ones there were equally good and bad. “You good to call Pops?” Charlie asks. I look over at him, then look at the clock on the dashboard and see that it’s just a little after seven. We still have a couple of hours to go.
I nod, pulling up his number, not surprised he answers me after one and a half rings. “This is early, even for you.” He laughs into the phone.
“Hey,” I say, looking out the window at the trees passing us. “Yeah, I think you need to know about a situation.”
“I’m listening,” he replies, and I tell him about the phone call I got.
“Okay, hear me out,” he starts, “and don’t go all apeshit on me. You sure this kid is even yours?”
“I guess we’ll find out,” I retort, “but I don’t think this is something that Paige would lie about. She wasn’t like that.”
“You said you haven’t seen or heard from her in nine years,” he counters. “Regardless, I’m going to call our lawyer and make sure he’s aware of the situation. I’ll call you back in twenty.”
“Got it,” I say and hang up the phone, looking back over at Charlie. “He’s going to call the lawyer.”
“Good idea. Know your rights. He might just be calling Ryleigh since she’s a family lawyer now.” I have no idea who he’s talking about, and my head is so all over the place, I don’t even want to know.
True to his word, Casey calls back in ten minutes. “Hey,” I say, putting it on speakerphone for Charlie to hear. I don’t know how much I’m going to actually absorb. “So you are probably going to have to do a DNA test since you didn’t know you were the father and didn’t have any contact with the child before now.”
“How long will that take?” I ask.
“I have contacts at a lab we can work with. I’m going to give them a call when they open. We can pay extra to have it expedited. But it might be twenty-four hours by the time it gets picked up and delivered to the lab.” I close my eyes.
“Lawyer said she’s in foster care,” I tell him. “I don’t want her in there longer than she needs to be.”
“I get you, Emmett. We’ll get you your girl, and you’ll bring her home.” Even when he says the words, it feels like a sucker punch to the stomach. What the hell am I going to do with her? I don’t know the first thing about being a father.
“We’ll call you once we meet with the lawyer,” I assure him.
“Can you send over the lawyer’s contact? In case he needs anything,” Charlie asks, and I nod because I should have asked him that.
“Will do,” he agrees, “and send me the address of where you’re going. If you need me, I’ll be on standby.”