Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
I was also unsurprised when my mother got a great seat in the corner of the room with a great view of the fish tank, as well as immediate service by our server.
Grumbling under my breath, I took a seat in the corner, a little unsettled when my mother sat next to me, boxing me into the corner.
My father took the seat across from my mother, and immediately ordered a beer.
“Look who’s here.”
My eyes automatically scanned the room, and my belly clenched when I saw Tobias sitting at a table with his new girl. She was cute. They fit well together. Then there was the other man, the scary as fuck one, along with a family that had to be his wife and two kids.
And immediately I knew why my mother had picked this place, as well as why she’d chosen a parking spot that was really far away from the door instead of her usual close parking spot that would ensure that she wouldn’t have to walk outside or be in the sun longer than she needed.
Dread filled my body as I stared at the couple.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
This was not going to be good.
This was never good.
Ever since my brother had been killed by Tobias, my mother had turned into a vindictive, petty woman who would do anything to ensure that Tobias and his family had the worst life she could possibly have a hand in providing for them.
I sat there for twenty whole minutes, waiting for it to happen.
I knew it would.
And I wasn’t disappointed.
It was Tobias’s girlfriend who started it all. My mother had made me aware of the new girl since he’d first been spotted with her. She’d then never stopped letting us all know how much she hated that he was happy, and Jay was ‘cold and dead in the ground with no one to love.’
I knew the instant that Audrey spotted my mother that it was about to go down.
I’d been secretly looking into this girl, and I liked what I found out. She fit Tobias well, and I liked the way she made him smile.
She was also the first person I saw that Tobias really paid attention to, and I knew from the instant I saw her the first time that this was going to be it for him.
The Hail boys were all alike. Once they found the one, they didn’t waste time in making sure she was known to be off limits to any other man. They’d been doing that since they were young.
Hell, a certain Hail boy had done that to me once upon a time. Once upon a time before my brother ruined everything.
Audrey had started across the restaurant toward the bathroom, and she would’ve made it, too. But my mother had to go and make a comment, and Audrey stopped.
“Trash doesn’t belong in this establishment. Why don’t you take those stupid kids and get out of here so people can enjoy their meal?”
I hadn’t once heard the kids that’d been sitting at the same table with Audrey and Tobias. Tobias had been holding the kids, and they’d been quiet nearly the entire time. I’d heard maybe one gurgle from the baby, and it’d been a happy sound. One that had made me smile wide, which had immediately made me sad since I wouldn’t be having any babies.
Not ever.
After the one and only disaster of a relationship I tried to have after Reed and I broke up, I knew it wouldn’t be in the cards for me.
I was a sad, pathetic excuse for a human being. I was also head over heels in love with a man that I knew would never love me back. Which equaled no babies for me. At least not the old-fashioned way.
I might buy some sperm on the Internet and artificially inseminate myself with a turkey baster…my mom would just love that!
“What?” Audrey halted when she heard my mother’s words and turned only her head to study her.
I immediately sank down in my seat, embarrassment flowing through me.
“Mom…”
My mother backhanded me so hard that I felt the reverberation all the way to my toes.
With the precarious perch I had on my chair, it also ensured that I fell backwards onto my ass from the force of her blow.
Stunned, I sat on my backside and watched the rest of the show with a dazed amazement.
“I’m sorry, but since when should I care about your opinions?” Audrey asked sweetly.
My mother turned a purple shade as she sputtered in indignation.
“That man who you’re letting touch you?” my mother snarled. “He’s the same man who beat my son to death with his bare hands.”
Audrey’s eyes turned cold.
“The son who had been raping an innocent girl who didn’t deserve to have your filthy, fucked up son touching her,” Audrey pointed out.