Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33691 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33691 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Now after seeing how much Grace actually spends, I’m annoyed. She has barely spent anything, and I’m sure on some level, that is partly my doing. I’ve been an asshole to her, all the while she’s been trying to prove that all she wanted was my father.
“All right. I’ll pull the trigger, but know this will be on the news by the end of the night.”
“Good. It’s time everyone knows who she really is. Her protection ended the day she tried to ruin this family once again.” I hang up the phone and lean back in my chair. How am I going to make this up to Molly? I can’t even get her alone. She won’t answer my calls or texts. It’s miserable.
The messed-up part is Grace already said she forgave me. That she understood and was sorry I had a mother like Heidi who’d made me the way I am. That shit burned. I hate that my mother still has this hold over me in a fucked-up way. I want to blame her for me fucking this all up with Molly, but this is on me.
I open my desk drawer and pull out the small box, putting it into my pocket. My grandmother left me the ring when she passed. She too had seen right through Heidi. I remember her telling me that she was going to pass the ring down to me. I hadn’t had the heart to tell her I would never marry. I’m thankful for that because I would be a damn liar. I grab the folder and head out.
When I make it to the main house, my father catches me first. He pulls me into his office. I’m sure he had someone watching to see if I’d come up to the house. Not that I blame him. If he loves Grace the way I love Molly, I’d do the same if it meant keeping her from getting hurt.
“She’s not ready to talk to you.”
“I don’t care,” I clip. Anger flashes in my father’s eyes. “I know Molly better than you do. My girl often needs to be guided.” I want to say she needs a firm hand, but I keep it tame. He doesn’t need to know the ins and outs of how Molly and I work together.
“How long were you going to hide what the two of you have been up to?” he asks.
“I never wanted to hide it. I was giving her until graduation.” A graduation I had to miss. At least going with the family, but I’d been there, nonetheless. There was no way I wasn’t going to be there for that important moment in her life.
“You’re going to have to give me more here.”
“It’s not you I have to give anything. It’s Molly.”
“Let him fix this.” I turn to see Grace standing in the doorway. “She needs to hear what he has to say. Molly has the tendency to run and shy away from anything she thinks might cause an issue, but you know that, don’t you, Asher? You gave her some time, and now it’s up.”
“I never meant to hurt her. I love her. I want both of you in this family.” Grace gives me a warm smile. “This.” I hold up the folder before I open it to show my father. His brows lift when he sees what’s inside.
“Why do you have that?” It was the prenup I’d pushed so damn hard for my father to get. I’d even made threats about pulling some of my shares and other things. Essentially, I threw a grown man's fit with the weight of my money and power. With how things had gone down with Heidi, my grandparents worried over the family’s trusts and estates. I’d been put in charge of most of them and swore to protect them.
“I’m picking love, and I want both Grace and Molly to know that I trust them.” I walk over and toss the folder with the prenup inside into the fire. I already had the lawyer destroy the other copy he had.
Dad walks over and wraps me in a tight hug. “I never thought I’d be able to heal what that woman did to you.”
“It wasn’t just you.” I hug him back. “All of this is for nothing if we’re not truly happy.”
“Agreed,” Dad says. I turn to Grace to apologize again.
“Don’t.” She holds her hands out. “If you want to make this up to me, then you need to go make my daughter smile again.”
“I will. If it’s the last thing I ever do.”
19
Molly
I stare down at the test lying on my bathroom sink. This isn’t happening. Great, Asher already thinks my mom and I are only out for money, and now here I’m pregnant. Next he’s going to tell me that I trapped him. I swipe the tears spilling down my cheeks.