Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
I bowed my head and whispered a silent sorry to Kenny before returning my focus to Nick. “Let’s take a walk outside. I don’t think it’s a good idea to go in with Adam on the warpath.”
“Does he know?”
“That we used to date? Obviously.”
He shook his head. “No about…”
“How you basically kept me captive at your house and treated me like absolute garbage. He knows that you hurt me, but I didn’t go into details. Look, you came here looking for answers, and I have them. Ask your questions now because after tonight I’ll never talk about this again.”
Chapter Twenty
Nick
I didn’t get a chance to respond before Frankie turned on her heal and headed down the stairs and out the front door. I practically had to jog to catch up to her. She didn’t stop until we were a few feet away from her building. “There’s some benches out back. We can talk there.”
I nodded, following her in silence.
She took a seat first, and I sat next to her. Though it was nighttime, the lamp posts illuminated the area making it easy for us to see each other. I couldn’t lie to myself, seeing her after all this time, being so close, did things to my libido that made me discreetly adjust my pants.
Frankie looked absolutely stunning. Her dark brown skin seemed to glow with health, and her beautiful afro-textured hair was now worn in long waist length braids that accentuated her gorgeous face. I wanted to reach out and twirl one of the braids around my finger, but I was certain my touch wouldn’t be welcome. By her body language of folded arms and stiff posture, I knew this wouldn’t be an easy conversation. I couldn’t exactly blame her after what I’d done.
If I were being honest, when I’d seen Frankie approaching her apartment linked arm and arm with another man, my blood boiled. She’d seemed so happy and relaxed with him. I had forced myself not to be get violent because I didn’t have the right even though jealousy ate away at my insides like acid.
It was because of the way I treated her that she had moved so easily. I lived with that shame, and even the self-loathing I felt probably couldn’t come close to what Frankie was feeling. I’d come to the conclusion that no matter what happened between her and my brother, I shouldn’t have treated her the way I had. Sure, at the time I’d justified it by convincing myself that she’d done something to my brother when in the back of my head I had my doubts. Now I couldn’t take it back, and I wasn’t sure if she’d accept my apology. There was one matter of hand I could resolve at the moment, and that was finding out the truth about Kenny.
I moistened my now dry lips with the tip of my tongue. “I like your hair.” The second those words left my lips, I groaned internally. I’m sure Frankie thought I was an idiot because I certainly thought so.
And my assumption was proven correct when she pursed her lips and scooted as far away from me as possible without falling off the bench. ‘I’m sure you didn’t come all this way to compliment my hair. You said you wanted answers, so ask your questions.” She folded her hands in her lap with her head bowed almost as if she was scared to look in my direction.
“You’re right. I didn’t. I…I don’t know where to begin.” Before I came over, I had a rehearsed list of questions I wanted to ask her, but seeing her, my brain was scrambled. At that moment I didn’t think I was capable of forming a coherent sentence.
“Look, it’s been a long day, and I’m sure if I don’t go back in soon, Adam is going to come looking for me, so whatever you have to ask I don’t have much time to waste.”
I ran my hands through my hair frustrated. Maybe I was stalling because even though I had my suspicions surrounding my brother, if I learned the definitive truth, there would be no closing that Pandora’s Box. And I could no longer deny my own culpability. “What do you know about Dr. Laski, and how long have you known?”
Frankie clenched her hands her lap tighter than before, head still bowed. “I had my suspicions about the Doctor when I started spending more time at your mother’s house and observing Kenny.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’d told me he had Cerebral Palsy before we even met, so I pretty much knew what to expect when I met your family. I didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary when I met him, but he was wheelchair bound.”
“So? What does that have to do with anything?”
“You’ve always been very proud of your brother, and you would share stories about him when you were growing up that he had stood up to a bully and beat him over the head with one of his crutches. From that I assumed he, at one point, used to walk. Then I observed some symptoms in him that I quite possibly could have been imagining, and I casually mentioned it to your mother since she’s his caretaker. She immediately got defensive and told me I didn’t know what I was talking about and that my nursing degree was garbage. But there was something else she said that didn’t sit well with me.” She paused as if she was trying to gather her thoughts.