Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
“Everything all right here?”
Shit. Two nurses stood in the doorway. Likely, they’d either seen or heard my dad hit Danny.
“Yeah. Everything’s fine.” Danny glared at my dad but turned away when Dad stared him down.
“We were just leaving.” Dad took Aneshya’s hand and gently guided her to the door. Luke lingered behind.
“You’re not our father anymore.” He lifted his chin. “Don’t bother my mom. You do, I’ll kill you.”
Danny didn’t say anything. Hell, he couldn’t even look Luke in the eyes. To his credit, Luke never wavered. He stood there until Danny finally looked up, acknowledging his son. Then Luke turned and walked out the door, following his grandfather and sister. I brought up the rear with a trembling Evelyn in my arms. That was the moment I decided they were all mine. I’d take care of them. I’d protect them. And if Danny showed his fuckin’ head anywhere near any of them ever again, Luke wouldn’t have to kill him. I would.
Chapter Three
Evelyn
I didn’t know what to think. I guess somewhere deep inside me that I’d never acknowledged existed, I knew Danny had something going on. Granted, I wasn’t expecting this. But it actually made sense in a way.
“Danny moved in with me right before I found out I was pregnant with Luke,” I murmured. I wasn’t certain who I was talking to. Musing to myself out loud, I guess. We were in Knox’s truck, headed to Mr. Knoxville’s house. I’d never known he’d had an actual house. Why was he living in that apartment if he had a perfectly good house? “I guess I just got so used to him being with me I never wondered why we hadn’t gotten married.” I sniffed. “I mean, I guess I should have known. Looking back, he was only home about half the week. Sometimes longer. Sometimes he’d be gone for a couple weeks or more at a time. You know. For work.” I sounded like I was in shock. I suppose I was.
“Honey, there’s gonna be plenty of time to sort this all out.” Mr. Knoxville gripped my shoulder from where he sat in the back seat. Grover. I had to start thinking of him as Grover. If I pissed him off, he might not let me stay with him, and I had nowhere else to go. What if he decided he wanted to take my children? I mean, they were his grandchildren, and he was the one who could give them a roof over their heads and a safe place to stay.
“No one’s gonna take your children, Evelyn.”
“Not on your life!”
Both men spoke over top of each other. Vehemently.
Had I said that out loud?
“Mom?” Aneshya sounded confused and scared. I knew Luke was angry. Me? I didn’t know what to do. What to think.
“She’s in shock.” Knox reached over and took my hand, gripping it tightly. He’d put me in the front seat with him. Even fastened my seat belt for me.
“Just get us home,” Grover ordered. “She needs to clean up and then rest. She’ll feel much better then.”
“Who’s gonna try to take us from Mommy?”
“No one, Aneshya. I won’t let anyone take us from Mom. Don’t worry.” Luke sounded confident and determined.
I needed to pull myself together. I was scaring my children. Hell, I was scaring myself.
“I will never let anyone take you away from your mother, Aneshya.” I thought that came from Knox. When I looked over at him, his free hand gripped the wheel. His jaw was clenched. He still had my hand firmly in his. For some reason, even though he was talking to my daughter, I believed Knox. It settled me when I had no reason to believe him. I didn’t know this man.
But he’d saved us. He’d saved us, then took care of us.
“Just relax. You’ll feel better when you’ve rested and had time to process.”
I snorted a laugh. “Yeah. Process. This is all… too damned much!”
“I know.” Grover muttered. “We’re almost home, honey.”
“How could he do this? How could I not know he had another woman?”
“Not your fault, honey. I’m his father and I didn’t know either.”
“I knew.” Luke’s muttered confession startled me. I looked back at him, my mouth open in shock.
“What?”
“I saw him. With her. She lives in the penthouse.” Luke turned to face the window. “A month ago.”
That made sense. That was about the time Luke started calling his father Danny. It was also when he became super protective of both me and his sister. He’d been leaning that way, but something pushed him over the top.
Knox pulled into the driveway of a ranch-style home. It had an upstairs, but Grover said that was mostly attic space. It was surprisingly well-kept considering no one had lived here for several years, if I’d understood Grover right. It didn’t exactly look lived in, at least from the outside, but the yard was well-kept as was the outside of the house. There were no special touches, though. No flowers in the yard. No outside furniture on the porch. No trash bins.