Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“Tell me about the fraud,” I said, keeping my eyes on the road.
“Is that what it was described as?” she asked softly.
“It said you stole your stepmother’s identity to get credit cards that you maxed out.”
I heard a deep sigh. “She claimed that, but I wasn’t charged with anything because once it was investigated, they found most of the charged items were in her possession or there was evidence she’d been the one on the trips where the cards were used. Tabitha had gotten herself into a financial bind and decided to blame me so she wouldn’t have to pay her debt.”
Motherfucker. I knew I hated that bitch. She’d been fucking evil at the funeral. However, that was the one thing on the background check that I’d overlooked. If Trinity had committed fraud with that woman’s identity, I would have commended her. Not judged her. I’d met the woman.
“You don’t believe me,” Trinity said with a trace of annoyance in her tone.
I wanted to smile, but didn’t. I had more questions.
“Tell me about the book theft.”
She shifted in her seat, and I was tempted to look down at her legs and see if those shorts had ridden up any further. At least these covered her ass. I wasn’t sure where she had gotten them, but I was damn thankful there had been no asscheek showing when I showed up to get her.
“Roy is Tabitha’s son,” she said, then paused. There was something in the way she had said his name that bothered me. As if saying it was difficult for her. “He needed money and sold all the rare books from Tabitha’s library on eBay. They were to go to him at her death one day, but they weren’t necessarily his yet. Anyway, when Tabitha found them missing, she accused me, but when I had no idea what she was talking about, she dropped it. Then, the next thing I knew, Roy had filed a police report, claiming I had sold his rare first-edition books. Since Tabitha had already tried to charge me with something I hadn’t done, my guess was, they thought it might work better if Roy did it. But again, no proof that it was me. Charges dropped.”
She was telling the truth. It was in the way she’d spoken and the defeated tone in her voice. There was no pausing to think about what she would say or how to explain it. She’d just repeated it as she knew it. I had forced the truth out of many men, and I knew the tells of a lie. Trinity wasn’t lying.
My grip on the steering wheel tightened. I wasn’t sure if I even needed to hear about the car. Blaise had already found out the truth. But I needed to hear her tell me. I wanted to see what her story was.
“And the car,” I finally said.
She let out a laugh that held no humor in it. More than anything, it was laced with pain. What the fuck had she grown up with? Where had her father been when that bitch of a stepmother was doing this shit to her? Why hadn’t he protected her?
“My dad missed my high school graduation. No one came. I would never have expected or wanted Tabitha there, but I had thought my dad would at least come. Someone to watch me.” She paused then, and I looked at her. She was staring straight ahead, but the look on her face killed me.
“Anyway, I didn’t have many friends—or any friends. I never went out. I always studied and focused on getting out of that house after graduation. It paid off at first. I got the scholarship. That night, one of the girls in my class was having a graduation party for the entire class. This was my last time to do something in high school. I didn’t want to stay home in a house with a woman who hated me. I wanted to celebrate that it was over. I’d be free soon. I called my dad and asked if I could use the car and go to the party. He said yes, probably because he felt guilty for missing my graduation. Tabitha was at a church event when I left. My dad didn’t tell her I was taking the car, so she thought I’d done something she could punish me for. She called the cops and reported it as stolen and accused me. The cops showed up at the party—I had been there maybe fifteen minutes—and I was arrested. They took me in. I told them to call my dad since it was his name on the title of the car. They did, and my dad confirmed he’d let me use the car. Then, I was released.”
I couldn’t ask any more questions simply because I couldn’t fucking handle the answers. The damn ache in my chest was new for me. I was struggling to take deep breaths. Motherfucker, I needed to kill someone. Or at least break them. My body was strung so tight that I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears. It didn’t help that every shitty thing I’d said to her and accused her of since I’d brought her to the house was just more cruelty that she had to endure.