Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
I shook my head.
“You look like you’d have a lot.”
Clara tried to cover her snort at the same time I burst out laughing. “Thank you?”
She blanched. “Not like that! Because you like . . . You’re so pretty! You look like a princess! That was, like, the second thing Amos ever told me, and he never says stuff like that.”
Amos thought I was pretty? What a sweet kid.
“I was with my ex for a really long time. And my other two boyfriends were in high school.” One of them, I had kind of kept in touch with. He messaged me on Facebook every birthday and Christmas, and I did the same. He was still single and apparently some kind of workaholic engineer. The last I’d heard from the other one, the one between the guy I’d lost my virginity to and Kaden, was that he was married with four kids; at least that’s what I’d seen the last time I’d stalked him online out of boredom. “You’re so pretty too, Jackie, and you’re really smart. That’s a lot more important and useful than looks are.”
Suddenly, I missed Yuki and Nori. We used to take turns pumping each other up when we were having bad days. When Yuki had broken up with her boyfriend about a month before Kaden had kicked me to the curb, we had sat around her living room—while he’d been on tour—and yelled at her. You’re beautiful! You treat people with respect! You haggled with your label for more money! You sold one hundred million records because YOU worked hard! You’ve got a great butt! You make the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had!
They had done the same for me in the month I’d stayed with Yuki after. Try being sad when people you love yell compliments at you. You can’t be.
The teenage girl who only spoke to me about work most of the time, though, grunted. “Boys don’t like smart girls though.”
From the side, I could see Clara shaking her head. “That’s why we’re telling you that they’re a headache.”
“More like a migraine, but sure, a headache works,” I chirped up, and then the three of us were cracking up.
And that’s when my phone started ringing.
Not actually with a call, I realized after a moment, but with a call through Facebook messenger.
I recognized the face on the screen before I even got a look at the name below it.
I knew that hair. The face with about ten layers of makeup that she never left the house without. Hell, I doubted she left the bathroom without a face full of foundation anymore. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but it was an idea of how important appearances were to her.
HENRIETTA JONES flashed across the screen.
The woman who had been my not-mother-in-law.
Glancing up, I noticed Clara and Jackie were talking about something, and my finger hesitated over the screen. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was ever talk to this woman again. It was half her fault that Kaden and I had split up. The rest of it was all on him. He didn’t have to break things off or want more fame or money. I had never cared about that. I would’ve been happy—
No. I wouldn’t have been happy. And none of that mattered anymore and never would again.
And as much as I would have loved to ignore the Mark of the Beast, if I didn’t answer, it would just make her think that I was hiding. That I was weak. Worse, she would just keep on calling.
She had run me out, and here she was now. Calling me. A year later.
I snickered and tapped the screen before putting the cell to my face and saying, “Hello?”
She wasn’t trying to video-call at least.
“Aurora,” the woman whose voice I could have recognized in a packed concert said, sounding just about as stuffy as she had for the last ten years. “It’s Henrietta.”
Was it petty of me to say “Who?”
It was, but I did it anyway. Because fuck this lady who had canceled my cell phone the day after her son quit on our relationship. Who had told her employees—people who I’d assumed were my friends—she would fire them if she found out they were communicating with me.
“Henrietta, Aurora. Jones.” She paused. “Kaden’s mother—oh you’re just being a pain, aren’t you?” she snapped about halfway through, realizing I was fucking with her. “Where are you?”
Where was I?
I snorted again and kept watching Jackie and Clara talk. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but whatever it was, it had to be good from the way their hands were moving. They were cracking up over something.
“In the United States, ma’am. I’m pretty busy and can’t stay on the phone long. Is this an emergency?”