Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Whoa.
Tom continued speaking.
“I broached how I was moving from concerned about this to being annoyed by it, and she told me it was not my business. I told her, as that’s the case, my guestroom soon won’t be available to her anymore, and that I’d be speaking to her mother and Bowie about following suit. She said she’d live with Judge and Chloe or Matt. She said they understood she was letting life guide her to her path, and it hadn’t guided her to anything yet. But she had to be open to follow wherever that led. I said it had, to being a freeloader and a bum, and I knew my daughter, she was neither, so what’s up with this horseshit? She told me I was acting like a jerk and demanded I leave her mother’s condo. Since it isn’t her condo, but I’d paid for half of it back when we first bought it, I refused. She left. I followed and buried my sorrows in cat toys at Petco.”
I was silent.
“Too much?” he asked like it was a dare.
“No, though it’s a lot,” I admitted.
“Not your problem,” he murmured.
“How long has this been going on?”
“Years, Mika. Fucking years.”
I knew this to be true not only because there was no reason to lie, but because my heart dragged at how weary with worry he sounded.
Without anything useful to say, I said my earlier thought out loud. “Whoa.”
“That about covers it, except you left out the shit, hell and damn.” I heard him take a breath. “I was not measured with her. No excuse. I lost patience and I shouldn’t have.”
“You had kind of a wild morning, Tom.”
“Is that an excuse to call your daughter a freeloader and a bum?”
“If she’s acting like a freeloader and bum, yes. It is.”
This time he was silent.
“I’m sorry you’re going through this,” I told him.
“She has something up with her. I don’t know what it is. Her mom doesn’t. Her sister, brother. We’ve asked, she says it doesn’t exist. We’re being too sensitive. We don’t get her. But she’s just bouncing from place to place, lost. She seems closest to Bowie’s son, Gage. But he’s a year younger than her. He’s protective and he loves her like a blood sister, but he’s hardly the person to give her sage advice or shake her shit and get her motivated.”
“I don’t know what I’d do if Cadence was in this kind of way,” I shared.
“There’s little you can do. It’s agony,” he replied.
And he didn’t hide it was just that, he sounded agonized.
“Christ, Tom, I’m so sorry,” I said softly.
“You showed at the vet hospital.”
Well, damn.
Here we were.
“Yes.”
“What was that, Mika?” he inquired.
No more procrastination, he didn’t deserve it and I couldn’t take it.
“Okay, Tom, I acted like an entitled bitch, not a friend. You’re right, I know nothing about your situation, and I rushed to judgment. I shouldn’t have. I feel shit about it. And I apologize.”
“Apology accepted,” he stated so instantly, I felt my body jolt with surprise. “Now, do we have to meet about Winston, or can you just tell me what this is about?”
“It would seem, not including my friend, he raped four women while he was on the tour and Core Point Athletics went to great lengths, and great expense, to cover them up. And I have an abundance of evidence that, if it’s real, proves that true.”
Tom was quiet again, but this was loaded silence. Immensely loaded. I fancied I could feel the weight of it, not to mention the heat behind it coming through the phone.
“Tom—”
“Just a minute, honey,” he said with forced gentleness.
I waited and it felt like he took the whole minute and then some.
Finally, he asked, “How did you come by this evidence?”
“I don’t really know. It was couriered to me the day I phoned you.”
“Are the women named?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know any of them?”
“Personally? No. Though a couple ring bells.”
“Do you think your friend is behind this and has taken this course because she wants something done, but her name kept out of it?”
“She could be. She has means. But if she isn’t, I’m loath to call her. It’s a wound I don’t want to reopen.”
“Understandable,” he murmured. “I need to see what’s in that envelope.”
“I’d appreciate it. I feel very alone with this, but something has to be done.”
“Agreed,” he replied. “But listen, I have to call Genny. We need to discuss Sasha. I think we need a family meeting. Once I have that set, I’ll text you and we can arrange another time where I can look through what you have.”
“This time, I’ll come to you.”
I offered that because it was only fair, he’d driven all the way out only for me to act like a jerk.
I also offered it because I was hoping he’d invite me to his house. I wanted to see where he lived.