Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 121728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
She remained where she was while he disappeared into his bedroom.
“Are you coming?” he called out.
Did she really need to see his bedroom and personal space?
His head popped out the door. “C’mon. Check it out. If you’d rather have my room, I can move into the spare bedroom for as long as you’re here. You’d be closer to the office, have your own private bathroom and I can even set up a desk area in one corner of the room so you have quiet and privacy for your meetings. The closet is bigger, too.”
He’d give up his own personal space for her? He had to be desperate.
She stepped into his room and it certainly had the opposite feel of Val’s. The decor and color scheme were all male. All earthy tones. Dark browns, tans, creams. A king bed sat against the outer wall on the right side of the room. Unlike the spare bedroom with only one window, his room had two facing the backyard. All in all, it was definitely nicer.
She wandered into the attached bathroom. It was larger and so much nicer than the other bathroom, too. And, bonus, she wouldn’t have to share it.
When she went back into the bedroom where he waited, her heart began to race when he closed the door behind her.
“That’s not the only reason I wanted you to come in here,” came his deep rumble.
Maybe she was wrong to trust him. Unlike him, she didn’t have the tools at her fingertips to run a background check on him. Simply being a cop didn’t guarantee he was a good person.
“Something else you need to know about Val that I didn’t want to say in front of her. When she was born, we didn’t think she’d make it. Not only because she went through withdrawals, but she was born underweight and had jaundice… Actually, her list of health issues was endless. But seeing her shaking so hard during detoxing and hearing her non-stop crying… It was heartbreaking to see her go through unnecessary suffering caused by my sister’s disregard for her unborn baby’s life. All of it had been avoidable.” His jaw tightened and shifted. “At that point, I swore I was done with my sister. It was one thing when she was destroying herself, another when she was doing it to a baby who didn’t have a choice. It took every ounce of willpower for me not to kill Amelia while she was still in the maternity ward.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Not at that moment. Once she decided to move back in with our mother, I cooled down because I had hope things would finally change. And you know the rest of that story.”
She could hear his frustration and pain because she had experienced it herself. And still was. “Well, thankfully, Val seems to be fine now.”
“She is for the most part. Of course, her development was delayed. It took her longer than normal to walk and talk. She’s also had some health scares, but, yes, thankfully she seems to be getting better every year and she’s almost caught up to the rest of the kids her age. Despite that, I still watch her for any signs she’s not. I also worry about her becoming an addict herself later on.”
“Not everyone would be willing to step up and take on a baby like that.”
“Since Amelia never gave her own daughter a fighting chance, I was determined to do that.” Then he murmured, “Family is family, whether by blood or by bond,” more to himself than her.
But she heard it and wasn’t sure she agreed completely with that statement. “That’s not true for everyone,” she said softly, thinking about how her own parents gave up on Sadie. And how Amelia continued to do drugs while pregnant with Val.
“It wasn’t just what she did to Val. This destroyed my mother, too.”
“You’re not including the damage Amelia did to you, either.” Quite clearly, he still was dealing with the effects of it four years later.
“Val’s my world. She’s my mother’s world, too. She’s the only bright light that came out of so much damn darkness.”
“You said she doesn’t know the details about her mother, but does she know you’re her uncle and not her biological father?”
“I never hid it from her. But she’s only four. Since Val has never known any parent other than me, it came naturally for her to call me Daddy as soon as she could talk. I guess it was easier than calling me Uncle Owen.”
“And you never corrected her.”
“No.”
Of course he didn’t because, it was obvious… “You prefer it.”
His hesitation was telling.
“It’s not a bad thing to want her to call you that since you’re raising her like she’s your own, Decker. Do you know anything about her biological father?”
“No. I think it’s better whoever it is doesn’t know about her. I can’t imagine he’s an upstanding citizen.”