Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 142664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 713(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 713(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Something jarred me awake sometime later, and in my confusion, it took me a minute to realize that there was someone else in the room with me. “Don’t make so much noise, Mom, my head is splitting.” I put my head back down and passed out.
Why the hell is my bed moving? I laid still for a minute and tried to make sense of the sounds and scents around me. I was smelling the ocean which made no sense because how the hell did I get there? I tried to sit up and realized immediately that that sickening feeling was no longer there.
My guts didn’t feel like it was trying to crawl through my ass, and my head wasn’t a pinata for the little drummer boy. But where the hell was I, and why was I smelling the ocean so strong? Did my family bring me out to the shore to make me feel better?
I started to get up and saw Lacey lying on a small cot next to the one I was on. “What the fuck?” I looked around the room and immediately realized why my bed was moving; we were on a ship.
ALYSSA
The last few days have been chaotic. For one, Jacks was gone. Garrett had gone behind my back and sent her back to Cali, but once he explained that she was keeping an eye on Natalie, I let it go. But that’s not the biggest surprise. Apparently, Denny and Lacey had run off together, or at least that’s what everyone thinks.
No one knows for sure because no one saw them leave together, but the fact that they both disappeared at the same time made it appear that they had. Though Denny’s Mom was telling anyone who would listen how much her son hated Lacey, which no one believed because they all pretty much knew about that video by now.
Speaking of everyone knowing, news of Helen’s arrest was already making the rounds, and the local gossip tree was in full force. I think the general consensus was that Helen had lost her shit because Dad went to my wedding without her because I didn’t want her there after years of abuse.
A little side note, Rhoda has been sharing some old texts between Helen and her friends bragging about how she was making mine and my Mom’s lives hell. I didn’t even have to embellish that shit to make her get hate; it was that horrible on its own.
Anyway, the ladies and some gents, too, I believe, were adding two and two together and getting ten, which was perfect for my purpose. They were of the belief that Helen, in a fit of rage, had released a monumental number of fleas in Dad’s home to destroy it out of jealousy and hate.
There was mention of her meltdown in the parking lot of the Piggly Wiggly; thanks again to Rhoda releasing that footage, and pretty much everyone was convinced Helen was no longer playing with a full deck. That’s for the years my mother had suffered mentally while that bitch was turning the screws and making it worse.
There was no bail, and somehow, the case was being rushed through the system, and she was looking at twenty years to life. At least that’s the gossip, but no one will know for sure until the trial starts if there’s even going to be one. Her court-appointed attorney may be pushing hard for her to take a plea deal, but again, I don’t know how true that is because it’s just hearsay at this point.
Mitzie was long gone, thanks to Garrett, who had met her on my behalf the day after I saw her in the hospital because I had a meeting I couldn’t miss. He'd sent the poor girl out of the country because Garrett couldn’t do anything like a normal person; he’d sent her all the way to the UK to the Sassoon academy because they were the best, he said.
She didn’t hang around to see what became of her mother because she was just done and I can’t say that I blame her. I always thought Helen spoiled her and gave her the life she thought she was stealing away from me. I had no idea that she was being abused and neglected. And that Helen only paid attention to her when I was around to make me feel left out.
I didn’t know that Dad lived like a prisoner in his own home or that Helen made his life hell each time he did something for me. There’s something seriously wrong with that woman, but whatever. The fact that she would be behind bars for years was enough to make my eight-year-old self clap with glee.
All of this shit had been done in less than a week, and I knew it had a lot to do with my husband’s money greasing palms and making things seem much easier than they really are for those with less deep pockets.