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)
“Give me a pen.” She held one out without looking away from her phone, and I just rolled my eyes and took it because I was not wrangling with crazy thirty-thousand feet in the air.
I signed and passed the pen and the papers back to her. She had the nerve to read it before signing it as well, and I realized that she was dead serious. I’ll be sure not to break any of her rules because I’m convinced she’ll kill me in my sleep like she has threatened more than once.
“Who are you texting? Your…. Corbin?” I have got to remember not to call him her Dad. Each time I make that slipup she looks like she’s this much closer to doing me in.
“Why would you think that?”
“Do you plan on forgiving him at some point?”
“No!” She didn’t even look up from what she was doing to answer.
“Why not?”
“See here, Alfred Adler, don’t psychoanalyze me, better men than you have tried.”
“My apologies.”
“Why do you always sound like you have a stick up your ass whenever you’re about to bother me?” She pointed the pen at me like a weapon. “I will not forgive him ever. I might talk to him again after about two decades, but I won’t forgive his shit.”
“Even after he explained the reasons behind his actions?”
“What reasons? The fact that he couldn’t keep his zipper closed?” She looked down at her jeans and pulled the zipper up and down. “Look at that. Who knew there was a way to keep that shit in the up position.”
“What about Helen? Did she never try to treat you kindly?” I knew that she never spoke to her therapists in over three years, and the last one was so traumatized she took a sabbatical after dealing with my little buttercup, so this was my way of getting her to open up.
“She tried once. That’s why my brothers started coming over in force. She wanted to play Mom while stealing my mother’s husband and our Dad. I threatened to burn her bed with her in it. I guess that’s why she took out the hit or something. What do I know.”
She went back to her phone, and I just sighed and dropped it. “What is it with you? Do you think I need help to deal with my childhood trauma? Let me relieve you of that worry. I know exactly what was done and who did it. I had no part in that shit and take no responsibility for any of it.”
“What was done was done to me and my brothers, the only kids and innocents in this mess. Mom had her own demons to fight, but she did the best she could when she wasn’t crying herself to sleep every night.”
“If Corbin was living in hell, it was a hell of his own making. Betrayal doesn’t just go away because the betrayer says sorry. Some wounds cannot be healed so easily. I am no longer suffering because of what he did because I choose not to be. He's a human, and so am I.”
“That human didn’t give a shit about me when he did what he did. If a stranger on the street betrayed me, I wouldn’t just let it slide, so why should I hold someone close to me to a lesser standard than a complete stranger? Isn’t that ass-backward? Now, does that answer your question? I am in the middle of something here, and you’re annoying me.”
“Carry on!” I’d give half my billions to have her fucking attitude.
LACEY
“I’m your daughter!”
“No, you’re not. How could you do such things?” I wiped the tears from my eyes and tried not to throw up. I was scared and sick to my stomach, and my life was unraveling too fast to keep up.
That bitch had released a video of me and Denny, and my own sister had told our parents about it. I always knew she liked Alyssa more than me, but how could she do it?
It wasn’t that bad at first. They’d yelled and screamed and told me how disappointed they were, which was nothing new, but I thought maybe things would end there, so I just walked away and locked myself away in my room.
I wanted to hurt Sherry and Alyssa, too; I was so damn mad. I spent the rest of the morning steaming and trying to think up ways to get revenge. I don’t see why everyone was acting like I committed a crime. People have sex with other people every day.
I couldn’t turn on my phone or go online without seeing the messages and notifications going back and forth about the stupid video. I couldn’t even press charges because she’d only shown the part with us in bed after and none of the actual sex parts, which wouldn’t have mattered even if she had because my stupid state doesn’t have laws against revenge porn.