Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 57943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
When he answered, I mumbled, “Dad, I fucked up.”
“What the hell, Cale? What’s wrong?” he demanded with concern in his voice.
“She left me, Dad,” I uttered shakily into the phone.
“Wow. That’s hard to believe. You guys seemed really into each other,” he muttered in disbelief.
“Dad, I fucking love her. I can’t lose her. But I fucked up. Badly.”
His voice grew hard when he asked the next question. “Did you hurt her? Did you put your motherfucking hands on her?”
“Wait, what? Hell no. Well, not exactly…” I didn’t know how to explain our story.
His voice was cold. “Explain it to me then, Cale.”
“Dad, do you remember the accident? You even said you helped get me out of hot water legally.”
“Yeah,” he huffed but waited for me to proceed.
“That night, I was so drunk. I was actually driving to try and reconcile with you. Anyway, I blacked out while driving down the highway. I have no idea where I went or what I did. Well, apparently, I thought it was a great idea to abduct a woman. Not just any woman, Dad. I abducted Lia. When we crashed, she was able to escape.” My stomach turned just thinking about what I did to the love of my life.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he roared into the phone in disbelief. “There’s no way. I absolutely don’t believe you could have done this.”
“Dad! I have a fucking angel tattooed on my arm! She was that angel!” I cried out, delivering the final blow.
“Shit, Cale!”
“What do I do, Dad? How do I fix this?” I pleaded for an answer.
“Cale,” he sighed, “it’s done. I’m not really sure how a woman can come back from something like that. We’ll get you the best lawyer around. You don’t have to worry about your reputation as a builder. I do believe it would be in your best interest to move back to Austin though. Things could get nasty in Jonestown for you.” He was the dad I remembered, trying his best to control the situation and fix it.
“Dad, you don’t get it. I don’t want to protect my reputation. I just fucking want Lia back!” I shouted.
“You sound like stalker. You better just move on and forget about her. With what you’ve done, you’ll never be able to convince her to come back to you. You will seem like the crazy person you were that night. I’m sorry, son, but there’s no other way.” His voice was stern—resolute.
“I can’t accept that. I’m going to her in New York. Maybe she’s calmed down enough to talk to me,” I stubbornly told him.
“I seriously think that’s a terrible idea, Cale.”
I ignored his last statement. “Dad, has your friend looked into Sam Vickerson yet? He was taken to jail last night, but I want to make sure the fucker never gets out, so any information I can provide to the police will be helpful.”
“I’ll contact him, son. I’ll let you know what I find out,” he assured me and hung up the phone.
This has to be the worst fucking day of my life.
WHEN WE FINALLY arrived at the hotel, I smiled, realizing that it was located near some of the best places to shop in town. My mother was just like me when it came to shopping—we were slightly addicted. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in our case.
After the cab pulled up to the curb and we grabbed my bags, we made our way into the swanky hotel.
Mom led me to the elevator and stroked my hair lovingly as we rode up to my floor which was just one floor up from theirs. When the doors opened, I followed her down the hallway to my room. She unlocked the door and ushered me inside. Once I dumped my bags, she called room service for some coffee. I unzipped my bag and located my pajamas. Today was one of those days. Not long after I curled up on the sofa, room service arrived and my mom handed me a steaming cup of coffee.
“Okay, baby girl. Spill,” she instructed, taking a sip from her cup.
“Oh, Mom. Where do I even begin?” I questioned with annoying tears filling my eyes again.
“You start from the beginning. Just tell me all of it. We’ll sort through your pain, I promise.” She reached a hand over and stroked my hair again.
I sighed before beginning. “So you remember how you got a call one day out of the blue with my random news of moving to another town?”
She nodded. “I never really thought it was random, but you seemed to feel strongly enough about it that I never pressed on.”
“Well, Mom, it wasn’t random at all. Things were perfect at school. I was acing my classes. The sorority was great. I had plenty of friends. But Jessie left me at a party one night. I ended up walking home alone late one night. Mom, I was kidnapped,” I tearfully admitted.