Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 101398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“Bullshit!” I snap, Sheriff Peeler’s advice wearing off in a blink. “Summer is my daughter.”
“Ben, calm down,” Pete coaches, rounding the desk to put a hand on my chest. I glance through the glass on the top half of his door as he spins me around and find Thomas and Eleanor smiling. “You getting riled up is exactly what they’re after. Now, Miss Norah says she’s coming with the letter, whatever that means, and she says your sister is on her way too. Evidently, she’s spoken to your lawyer. So, just stay calm, all right?”
“I’m not calm,” I reply instantly. “I’m not calm at all, Pete. Summer’s…time is running out, and I’m here. Do you understand me?”
Pete nods, the motion jerkier than usual. “I understand, Ben.”
Gently, he urges me out the door of his office and over to the other side of the empty bullpen. He pulls out a chair, and I sit in it, facing out the window rather than wasting any of my precious sight on the clowns and their puppet Jessica.
Time feels like it takes forever, but in reality, the clock on the wall only moves forward twenty minutes before I see them coming, dust kicking up from the gravel lot as they slide into a space in Breezy’s rental. Clay’s truck is right behind them and pulls into a spot with a skid of his brakes. Norah jumps out of Breezy’s passenger’s seat, still wearing my T-shirt but having added a pair of pants. My sister folds out of the driver’s seat, and Josie climbs out of the back.
When Clay is out of his truck, he and Josie walk into the police station right beside each other without their usual anger-fueled tension. If anything, the four of them appear to be a single unit, ready to come to my rescue together.
I guess my being taken in to the police station brings even the most unlikely together.
Spinning my chair, I stand and walk toward Thomas and Eleanor, concern for Norah when she sees them my primary concern. Thomas’s eyes widen at my approach, and he scrambles back, bumping first into a desk and then into an empty chair.
I smile at his fear.
“Sheriff!” Eleanor yells, pulling Thomas to her side. “Your prisoner is approaching us!”
Pete actually laughs. “I can see that, Mrs. Ellis.”
“Well, then do something about it! And it’s Mrs. Ellis-Prescott!” She smirks like that means something to Pete, but New York society last names mean fuck all in Red Bridge.
Pete just shrugs. “Ben, step back, would you?”
I sigh and step back a foot or two, just as my crowd of protectors comes barreling into the bullpen.
Breezy is first in line, her face a harsh mask of New York Fuck You.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“Thomas…Mom?” Norah cries as soon as she sees them. “This is your doing?”
Clay comes to my side. “You okay, man?”
I nod. “Just want to get home.”
Clay slaps me on the shoulder and nods. “I know.”
“You’ve truly lost your mind, Eleanor,” Josie spits unchecked. “Siding with an abuser?”
Eleanor snorts. “Thomas is hardly an abuser, Josie. Be serious.”
“I am serious,” Josie snaps back. “He put his hands on Norah and left a mark. Nearly dragged her out of my shop and would have if Bennett here hadn’t stopped him. He’s a piece of shit, and everyone here knows it.”
“Folks, folks,” Pete tries to interject, but the train has already left the station.
“He’s a lot more than that,” Norah cuts in, pulling a manila envelope from under her arm. Her voice is shaky and nervous, and I hate that I’m the reason for it. “I have evidence here of blackmail and coercion and a pretty good feeling that there have been multiple girls the two of you have forced into abortions and other things.”
Thomas’s voice is seething. “Where the hell did you get that?”
Norah shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter where I got it. What matters is that I have it. And I’m going to pursue it to the fullest extent of the law, even if that means a long, drawn-out trial against you.”
Josie wraps an arm around Norah’s shoulders in comfort. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is the very last thing Norah wants to do.
As the commotion picks up, Jessica and her lawyer come out of the sheriff’s office, and as soon as Breezy spots her, her eyes go round. “What the hell is she doing here?”
“I’m here for my daughter.”
Josie and Clay gasp. Norah turns tearful eyes to me.
Breezy, though, she’s not having any of it. “Don’t give me that bullshit, Jessica Folger. That girl is not your daughter. Your role was giving birth, and that was the extent of it.”
“Because he paid me to leave!” she shouts.
“He paid you a generous sum of money, yes, but you didn’t need any convincing to leave, Jess. You and I both know you didn’t want anything to do with that baby.”