Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 95906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
But I knew as soon as he dropped his eyes, I wasn’t going to get what I wanted.
“…all this nature,” Micah murmured.
I let him off the hook by getting us walking again.
“I just feel sorry for Clara,” he said after a moment. I could sense he had more to say so I stayed quiet.
“She never signed up for any of it, you know?” he said.
“For what?”
“The shit with Brady. And my dad.”
“Your dad?”
Micah nodded. “After Brady got hurt, Clara had to move in with us. Her family kicked her out when they found out she was pregnant. She really loved Brady so she worked hard to help take care of him after he got out of the hospital. But Brady didn’t make it easy. Neither did my dad.”
“What do you mean?” I asked carefully.
Micah was silent for several long seconds. “Brady changed after he got hurt. I mean, it was normal for anyone who’d gone through that kind of trauma to be angry and depressed and stuff, but he just… he…”
“He what?” I asked as I forced Micah to stop. The kids were far enough ahead of us that they couldn’t hear but not so far that we couldn’t still see them.
“He was mean. Just… really mean.”
All the guilt came rushing back but I set it aside because I knew it was something Micah needed to get off his chest. I got us moving again so we wouldn’t lose sight of the kids. We were on our way to a second pond on the property that had a waterfall, so the kids were beyond excited to see it.
“He said stuff to Clara that he’d never said before.”
“What about you?” I asked. “Did he say stuff to you?”
Micah nodded.
“Did he do anything else?”
This time there was a good thirty seconds before he nodded again. I stopped walking again, forcing him to do the same.
“Hey Christopher,” I called out.
“Yeah?” Christopher responded. Since my talk with him on the porch, the kid had relaxed considerably around me. He was still skittish if I moved too quickly, but he recovered more rapidly if I inadvertently did something to frighten him.
“The pond is just around the corner. Your uncle and I will catch up, okay? Keep an eye on your sister.”
“Okay!” Christopher yelled, then he and Rory were running the last few hundred feet to the pond. It wasn’t super deep and had an easy entry so I knew the kids would be okay on their own for a few minutes, especially with the way Christopher watched out for his sister.
I pulled Micah over to the side of the trail and tugged him down to sit next to me on a large log. “Tell me,” I said softly as I pulled him up against my side and pressed a kiss to his temple.
“I know he didn’t mean any of it…” Micah murmured.
I let my fingers trail up and down Micah’s spine. I had my own opinions about Brady’s true nature based on the fact that he’d literally been willing to stab me in the back, but I didn’t say so.
“He was paralyzed from the chest down, but he still had use of his arms. He could talk and breathe on his own. The doctors said with some intense physical therapy, he could have a relatively normal life. He just wouldn’t walk again. But that was all he heard. He said his life was over. I thought over time that his attitude would change, but he just got angrier and angrier. He started lashing out at Clara. He never wanted to hold Christopher… didn’t even want to see him. I helped take care of Brady as much as I could, but I wasn’t strong enough to do much. The state paid for nurses to come by and help out so I eventually learned how to do things for him, but Clara took the brunt of his anger. And my dad, he treated Clara like he had my mom, so she was doing all the housework and trying to take care of Christopher and Brady. She started drinking to deal with it. Then she just shut down. After two years she’d had enough. After my dad died, she started hanging out with all these different guys. She eventually got pregnant with Rory and then Ricky entered the picture and I knew the old Clara was gone for good.”
“So you took over Brady’s care. And Christopher’s. And Rory’s too when she came along.”
Micah nodded and subtly wiped at his eyes. “Brady just said mean shit most of the time. He told me it was my fault he was in that bed. That he wouldn’t have been there if he hadn’t had to watch out for me. He didn’t know that I’d called out that warning to you. If he had…”