Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 174632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
“Why would she want to talk to you?” Rochelle sneered. “You humiliated the family. Again. Why do you have to be such a disappointment?”
“Call her a disappointment one more time. I dare you.”
She was so busy trying to get Jack under control that she’d failed to notice Ian reaching that edge and toppling right over it.
Monkeyballs.
He was now looming over Rachelle and she’d finally grown a brain cell and realized the danger she was in.
“Jameson? Some help?”
“With what? I want to see the little bitch sweat for what she just said to you,” Jameson stated.
Great.
So everyone had left the rational station and taken the train to nutsville.
Perfect.
This is what she got for being with men who were utterly obsessed with her. It was hard but someone had to do it.
Urgh. She was already at nutsville station.
“If you touch me, I’m calling the police,” Rachelle said in a high-pitched voice.
“I wouldn’t touch you if my life depended on it,” Ian snarled as Jack drew Maggie against him, holding her tight.
When she tried to get to Ian, Jack held her back. “I don’t want you anywhere near her.”
“She’s my sister, she won’t hurt me.”
“She already has,” Jack replied.
It had been that obvious, huh? She hated being called a disappointment.
“Will the two of you stop providing the neighbors with gossip for the next century?” Her mum stepped into the doorway and glared at her. “Get inside.”
Swallowing heavily, Maggie walked up to the house where she’d grown up. Her mum moved away and Rachelle entered first, giving Ian and Jack worried looks.
“Can’t they leave?” Rachelle whined, gesturing at her men.
“No, we can’t,” Ian said, following her sister inside.
Jack strode on in as though he owned the place. And he was actually whistling.
Ian took her hand in his and glared at Rachelle who turned away to scurry ahead of them.
When they walked down the hallway to the larger kitchen and dining area at the back, she was unsurprised to see her brother and dad there.
“Finally, she turns up,” Ronny said with a sneer. “Took you long enough.”
“Do you even care that your sister was kidnapped?” Jameson said in his poshest sounding voice. “She was held by people who beat and starved her and you haven’t bothered to ask her how she is.”
“What?” her dad asked. “No-one . . . no-one told me this? Heather? Did you know this?”
“It’s probably just a story she made up for attention,” her sister said. “She was always doing that as a child.”
God.
She hadn’t realized how much she hated her sister until that moment.
Ronny let out a laugh. “Yep, she’s such a liar, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Really? Would you like to see the bruises?” Jameson moved over to her, placing his hand on her sweater questioningly.
Without thinking about it too much, she raised her sweater and T-shirt up to show off the bruising on her ribs. It actually wasn’t too painful anymore, but it looked terrible.
Her dad sucked in a breath. “Maggie! Why did no one tell us?”
“I tried to call you both after William was hurt,” Ian told them. “Your wife hung up on me.”
“I didn’t want to talk to you,” her mother said, glaring at Jameson.
“W-what?” Her dad looked at her mum like he’d never seen her before. “Who did it? Have they been arrested?”
“They’re searching for them,” Maggie replied. Part of her felt better that her dad hadn’t known anything. And worse because her mum didn’t look like she even cared. “It was the same people who released those photos to the press.”
“Yes, those photos,” her father spat out, looking from Ian to Jack. Then he turned to Jameson. “And who are you?”
“I’m Doctor Jameson St. Bede.”
Lord, she loved it when he got all snooty.
“Are you with my daughter too? The two of you were in those photos. Are you in some sort of harem like those people who live in Escana?” her mother asked looking like she’d tasted something revolting.
“Actually, I am. And these guys are my boyfriends.” She’d ask Jameson’s forgiveness for lying later.
“I don’t approve of this, Maggie,” her mum said. “You’re not getting involved with these men. No daughter of mine is going to be a slut.”
Maggie was tempted to curl in on herself. To just take the verbal battering and walk away. But then she looked at Ian who looked like he was about to explode. Over to Jack who’d gone blank, his body held tight. Then over to Jameson who lifted a finger to her mum.
“How dare you!”
Her mum jolted as if she hadn’t expected them to talk back to her.
“Your daughter is sweet and kind and smart. She deserves to be showered with love and affection and all you can do is spew hate at her. You don’t deserve her.”
“Well . . . how rude! Hugh, aren’t you going to defend me?”