Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 94205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
It was shit. Total shit.
“Lara, you have to come to the wedding. She’s your sister. She’s family. We both know how important family is and not living with regrets.”
Great. Chandler sent in the big guns.
“I’m not sure why Chandler thought he had to offer you money to get you here.”
Because Chandler knew there was no way she was coming without an incentive. Of course, maybe he should have had her mom call her first.
“Mom, I can’t come.”
“I understand that it’s hard for you because she’s marrying Geoffrey, but surely you can see they’re a much better match than the two of you ever were. Emily can give Geoffrey what he needs, and frankly, you weren’t the right fit for him. Geoffrey has a high-powered career, he’s under a lot of stress. Emily eases that stress for him.”
“Eww, I don’t need to hear about what Emily does for him.”
Too much information.
“Lara! I was talking about the fact that Emily knows how to help further his career. How to host dinners and talk to his colleagues. She’s adept at running a household. Can you honestly say you know how to coordinate your napkins with your tablecloth?”
“Do people still use tablecloths?” Lara asked. “I mean, they’re good to wipe your face with when you run out of napkins, but otherwise, I don’t really see the point of them.”
“Lara!” her mother said, aghast. “This is exactly what I mean. You are . . . where are your manners? I taught you better than this.”
Lara rolled her eyes. Where was her mom’s sense of humor? Seemed like it had flown out the window the moment she met Chandler Devout.
That man would cause anyone to have constant constipation. Which she guessed explained why her mom was so uptight now.
“Sorry, Mother. Temporary insanity.”
“So, you’ll come?”
“Fine. I’ll come. But only for the day of the wedding. And I’m not staying in Devotion.”
Shit. Fuck.
What am I doing?
There was some whispering on the other end of the phone. She guessed her mom had to confer with Chandler.
She’d promised herself she’d never go back to Devotion. That the town would never suck her back in and turn her into a mindless zombie like everyone else there. No one dared do a thing without Chandler’s approval. Apparently, the town had been founded by his ancestors, and everyone there saw him as some weird sort of royalty.
“Fifteen thousand if you stay at the house,” her mother countered.
What the hell?
“No! No way. I’m not coming back there to stay.” The place should have been called Desolation. That’s all she’d ever felt living there. Along with angry, traumatized, and sad.
She wished that she and her mom had never stepped foot in that place. They’d been on their way to Haven when their car had broken down.
Guess who’d driven past and stopped to help?
None other than the mayor and cult leader, Chandler Devout.
Okay, so he wasn’t a cult leader exactly. It just felt that way sometimes.
Another soft sigh from her mom. “Why does everything have to be difficult with you, Lara?”
“Sorry, Mom.” She winced. Drat. She hadn’t meant to say that. Why should she apologize?
“Where are you going to stay?” her mother demanded.
“In my van.” If she could get Chandler to give her some money upfront.
“V-van? No! No, you can’t stay in your van. How would that look?”
She didn’t much care. “Like I don’t want to stay with the woman who stole my boyfriend?” Not that Geoffrey was a huge loss. In fact, for once Emily had done her a favor.
She just wished that favor hadn’t been accompanied by the rumors she’d spread around town about Lara having a mental breakdown.
Sure, she’d chucked all of Geoffrey’s clothes on the front lawn when she’d found him fucking Emily in her bed.
And yes, she might have dumped honey and oil all over them. She may have also written asshole in black permanent marker all over his shiny new red convertible.
But he’d been asking for it. And it wasn’t a mental breakdown so much as a release. Breaking free. She’d grabbed some things, sold her car, and bought Virginia, her van. And she’d left the hell that was that small town filled with people with even smaller minds.
“If you don’t stay at the house, people will talk.” Her mother said that like it was the worst thing imaginable that could happen.
Didn’t she know people would always talk? Especially in that town.
“They’re going to talk anyway.”
“That’s not true.”
“Fine. I won’t come at all.”
Ouch. Saying no to that money really hurt. But there were some things she couldn’t bring herself to do. Staying in Devotion was one.
“Fine, well, I’ll make up some excuse. We can tell people you’re allergic to Oscar.”
Considering that Oscar, her mom’s dog, was the only one she could stand in that house, it was kind of ironic.
“But we need to present a united front, Lara. You need to show everyone that you and your sister love each other.”