Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 49114 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 196(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49114 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 196(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
I know even if Elaina balked mom would be on it. I was again killing two birds with one stone. I was giving Elaina a day with a woman who knows how to be a mother and at the same time, getting mom acquainted with the woman I plan to marry.
Luke
As soon as I got back to the car I opened my phone. I needed to know what had made her so afraid upstairs and the little surveillance camera I’d put in her room should tell me.
From the way she’s been bruised I know that her mother was responsible. I also know that she wouldn’t dare do that shit in front of the old man, so it could only be in the safety of her room that she was being attacked. Vicious unconscionable bitch!
That’s why I’d bugged her room the day before. As worried as I now am because of hers and mom’s suspicions where dad was concerned, I was way more worried about just what the hell was going on with her in that house.
Dad was going to be okay. If he’d been duped, the only difference in my plan would be to give him a pass. But I know the bitch isn’t going to kill him before they walk down the aisle. Her daughter, I’m not sure that she won’t harm her again.
“What’s she doing?” I watched as she poured coffee into a bottle that already held some. Was she being starved? Why the hell would she be hoarding coffee? No, that can’t be it. She’d eaten breakfast and I’d fed her two days in a row.
I almost went back inside to ask her, but I really was running late for my appointment. So instead I headed to the office knowing at least that she was in good hands with my mom.
I pretty much forgot what I’d seen for the next few hours as I mowed through business meetings and fielded overseas calls. Around lunch I checked in with her, on the phone I’d bought her that she’d had to sneak out of the house.
She sounded fine and when she passed the phone to mom she assured me that all was well. I settled into work again but was interrupted some time later by my phone ringing.
My heart started to race when I recognized mom’s number. “Mom, what is it?”
“You’ve got to come here now.”
“Where are you?”
“The police station.”
“WHAT?” I had my assistant cancel the rest of my afternoon appointments as I rushed from the office.
“Mom are you still there? Tell me what happened. Is Elaina okay? Are you?” “We’re fine but that woman, oh dear. I think we made a mess.”
“What woman, what are you talking about?”
”Just come Luke, I have to go.” She hung up the damn phone leaving me in hell. There was only one woman she could be talking about. Mom doesn’t address people that way. But how did she find them?
I reached the precinct ten minutes later and was led back to an office once I identified myself. Both mom and Elaina were sitting down across from the man I recognized as the local chief of police, from attending one too many charity benefits.
“What happened?” I went to Elaina first because she was the one most afraid. “Who the fuck hit you?” I forgot my mom and the cop were even there. There was a handprint in her face, right across her cheek.
“That vile creature did that to this child.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s in a holding cell waiting for your dad to come bail her out Mr. Carstairs.”
“Mom, what happened?” I kept Elaina in my arms, holding her protectively against me. Mom’s face looked the way it used to when I was a kid and anyone else dared to mess with me.
Even with all that was going on, I was inwardly pleased that she was already feeling protective of my woman. I knew it would happen of course. That once mom saw the same qualities in her that I had that first day, she’d not blame her for Lisa’s sins. Of course there’s the fact that she’d understand the significance of me bringing a woman home to her. And would act accordingly.
Now as she tried to get her words together, it was easy to see just how upset she was because of what happened to my Elaina. “We were going in and out of the shops on Riverside, minding our own business.”
“I hadn’t had that much fun in so long, I guess I let my guard down for a second. I’m not sure if she was following us around, or what. I don’t even know how she knew where to find us. Maybe she was just out doing some shopping of her own.”
“But I was looking through some dresses for Elaina while she was in the changing room trying the ones I’d already bought when I heard her cry out.” She shook her head and held her chest.